Someone Out of Town
by kaitothegreat
Summary: A dream is just a dream; it means nothing and has no relation to the real world. That is, if you aren't dreaming about someone else's memories. SoulMate-ish!AU
1. Phenomenon

Someone Out of Town

A dream is just a dream; it means nothing and has no relation to the real world. That is, if you aren't dreaming about someone else's memories. SoulMate-ish!AU

* * *

 _Oh my god, I see you clearly now._  
 _In my dreams you're here with me somehow._  
 _Call my name and I won't make a sound._  
 _I'm in love with someone out of town.  
\- Yuna , Someone Out of Town_

* * *

Aoko knew what she had signed up for the moment she first joined Kudo Shinichi's Special Task Force to put down the Black Organization. The legendary detective, after all, had been constantly urging anyone who couldn't afford to sacrifice their time and life to leave the squad until the big operation was over. Although he didn't go into details about why they were dangerous, Aoko knew it since the day Kaitou Kid died under the hands of the same Black Organization three years ago.

Her stakes were high.

As the sound of running footsteps steadily became louder and louder, Aoko shifted her weight between her legs, toes numb and dangling over the ledge of the roof. Her head was empty with no ideas of escape, but at least she knew how she was going to die; Either with shattered bones at the bottom of the building or a bullet through her skull. Different ways, but same outcome.

 _Death_ , was the only way out—

—Until when she suddenly felt a hand grabbing her waist and pulling her into a side hug. The tight grip around her body only gave her the freedom to move her head, which she did as she turned to glare at the culprit of her surprise with wide, blue eyes.

"You-!"

The man, nonchalant to her piercing gaze, only pulled the brim of his black cap down to hide his features for Aoko to see.

Even though he was donned in the signature colour, Aoko's instinct told her he wasn't related to the Black Organization. But still, she couldn't determine if he was a friend or a foe based on that. She tried to struggle out of his grip. "Let go of m–"

He was too strong for her meaningless effort. "You can thank me later."

Aoko would have laughed if her heart wasn't about to jump out of her mouth right now. "I won't thank you for anything-!"

Before she could finish her sentence, he jumped, and the only thing that welcomed her next was darkness.

.o.

"We'll continue to monitor her until tonight." The doctor switched his torch off and slipped it into coat's pocket. Aoko rubbed her eyes, seeing stars in her vision. "If all is well, she can be discharged by tomorrow."

"Thank you doctor." Her father bowed and made way for the doctor and nurse to leave the ward. The door hadn't closed for two seconds and he turned back to Aoko, with a gaze that only she recognized as warm. "Do you want anything to eat?"

"The nurse said she's going to bring me some bread."

"The bread here tastes like rock. I'll go buy some food for you." He stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to Shinichi, who was quietly standing at the corner the entire time. "Look after her for me."

"Yes, sir."

With a few quick steps, her father was out of the ward.

Aoko looked up at the clock hanging on the wall. "Isn't the trial today?"

"Yeah, in two hours' time. I'll leave by then." Shinichi said coolly and grabbed a nearby stool. He sat heavily on it, almost like he was attempting to break it. "Besides, your dad told me to look after you. I want to keep that promise after breaking it the first time."

"I'm fine."

"Are you?" Shinichi said solemnly and gestured a wave over her bed. "I did say this mission might risk your life, but it doesn't mean I'm sending you in to kill yourself."

"I–"

"At least you're in one piece." He sighed, catching Aoko off guard (She was expecting a longer lecture). "And that's all I care about, including the twenty-page report you'll be writing in to me by the end of next week."

"Twenty pages might not be enough."

He raised an eyebrow.

"A man saved me." Aoko paused, trying to read Shinichi's features as he stared back at her impassively. She was hoping for a flinch, or any tiny movement, just so to prove her theory right. But judging from his body language, it was as though he was expecting this, along with the next question she was about to ask: "You know him, don't you?"

Shinichi sighed. "I thought you forgot to ask."

"You were _hoping_ I wouldn't ask." Aoko said. She didn't know where her courage came from to bluntly state her observation, but she continued like nothing happened, while pretending to not notice Shinichi slightly widened eyes too. "He's not like any police officer I've met. Is he an undercover?"

"He's not a friend, but not an enemy either." Shinichi let the silence linger, allowing Aoko to register his words into her brain. "And that's all you need to know."

Aoko understood Shinichi's implications. She knew the rules and whatnots of confidentiality and secrecy issues in the Force, and pressuring for an answer would just lead her to nowhere.

Giving an inward sigh, she decided to trust Shinichi and his judgement. After all, the reason why she was alive was thanks to the very judgement Shinichi had towards _that guy_.

"I thought I could thank him." Aoko's stomach gave a funny lurch at her own words, but she continued before giving her feelings much thought. "Even though he forced me to jump off a building, he saved me."

The corners of Shinichi's lips tugged, and Aoko thought she caught some sign of relief in his eyes. "As for that, I can transfer the message for y–"

The door suddenly slid open, cutting Shinichi's words to an end. They both watched her father marching into the room with a take-away bag before Shinichi stood up from his chair, helping to pull an overbed table for her father to settle the packed food before her.

"There's nothing much in the canteen, but I guess this is the best option." Her father said, his tone conflicted between proud and hesitance as he passed a spoon to her. "Rice porridge."

"Thank you for the food." Aoko said and dug in, her mouth nearly bursting from her first, big bite. She was honestly too hungry to care about her image in front of the two men she had high respect for, but when her second scoop of porridge contained a weird-looking _white substance_ that slowly fell off the spoon and into the bowl, she gulped and turned away, much to her disgust.

"What's wrong?" Her father asked in mild concern.

"Is this..." Her throat squeezed as the next word came out with a squeak. " _Fish?_ "

"Yeah." He frowned and looked over at the bowl of rice porridge.

"I-I don't want it." Aoko pushed the bowl away and leaned back against the bed, her appetite gone like magic.

"You don't want it? Then what do you want to eat?"

Fish was one of her favourite food, but even thinking about the scaly _thing_ in her head made her as uncomfortable as standing in a pit of lizards. It was _that_ horrible. "I'll just have the bread."

"Are you alright?" Shinichi raised an eyebrow. Even the blind could sense her discomfort.

"I'm fine." She forced an reassuring smile and turned to her father, though her efforts faltered by the next second. "I'm sorry for the wasted trip."

"Doesn't matter. I'll save it for my dinner later."

Aoko nodded reluctantly in reply. She gave one last look as her father packed the food before glancing away, her chest feeling uneasy again. It wasn't just the guilt of rejecting her father's effort; there was something more to it, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

Maybe it had to do with the hit on her head.

.o.

" _Hmmmmm... Hmmm..._ "

This song, which Kaito didn't know where he heard on earth before, had been stuck in his head since this morning.

It could be from a passing radio or somebody's ringtone, but the tune was distinct in his mind, as if he'd listened to it for a thousand times. His foot tapped with the beat as his body started to sway with his humming. His cup noodle was cooked perfectly, all the stray cats responded to his calls and he had enough loose coins to buy his favourite ice cream. Everything was great today, and naturally, the song came to him.

"I'm surprised."

Kaito glanced over his shoulder, watching Shinichi walking across the roof and towards the ledge where he was leaning on and admiring the view since ten minutes ago. He waited for the detective to reach his side before proclaiming his curiosity. "Surprised for?" He drawled, while hoping Shinichi didn't hear his embarrassing humming just now. He intended to leave with a good reputation.

"Surprised that you're not dressed up as a woman today." Shinichi gave him a once over. "I noticed you have a fetish for that."

"I don't dress up as _any_ woman, if you noticed too." Kaito winked under the disguise of a middle-aged man. And being in that form, the wink was mildly disturbing. "Your wife's great skin complexion makes it easier for me to mould the wax." He continued.

Shinichi's glare could almost burn through Kaito's mask. Heaving out an irritated sigh, Shinichi gave up the stupid eye-contact contest and took out a bulky envelope out from his inner suit.

Kaito gloved his hands and took the envelope, flicking the seal flap open to look inside. At the bottom of the envelope was the promised jewel; its shiny surface radiating a special kind of pinkish red light, acting as if it was protecting the jewel from danger. He had held over a hundred of heists, and this was the first time he came across a jewel that could do such a thing.

After all the research and confrontation with Snake, he didn't really need the moon to confirm if it was what he wanted.

"Is it the one you're looking for?"

"You should be worrying about yourself instead." Kaito sealed the envelope and waved it for emphasis. "Aren't you risking your career for this?"

"I think you're the only appropriate person who knows what to do with it." Shinichi gave him a knowing look when Kaito tried to feign oblivious. "And it's quite a fair exchange, given that you risked your life for this operation, and even saved one of my subordinates."

With the mention of that feisty woman, he thought it was finally appropriate to ask the question he had been thinking about after he left her under a tree without sounding like he cared, even if he really did (Not very reputable for a man who claimed to hate any ties). "How's she?"

"Already back in the Force."

"I see." He unconsciously relaxed and stuffed the envelope inside his jacket. Falling was his forte, but his landing sucked. He wondered if that woman received any bruises too, although he probably suffered more when he shielded her from hitting the trees at the bottom of the building.

"She wanted to say thank you." Shinichi added.

Kaito lifted an eyebrow. "Really?"

This was probably the only mystery Shinichi couldn't solve by himself in his life. "Why would you doubt that?" He asked, puzzled.

 _/ "I won't thank you for anything." /_

Though Kaito didn't have a chance to take a good look at the woman's face, he was pretty sure her voice and tone sounded nothing close to gratitude. The thought of their short conversation still amused him till today, but it shouldn't matter to him anymore. Or at all. "Nothing." He shrugged.

"Then..." Shinichi cleared his throat and gave him a quick glance. "Is Kaitou Kid officially retired?"

"Kaitou Kid died three years ago." Kaito said flatly. He didn't like saying it, much less thinking about how the real one _did_ die, but more than a decade ago. Besides, he had already decided to quit playing around with his alter ego because–

"Then what about you? You, as in _you_." Shinichi pointed at Kaito, as if that would make his reference a bit more clearer.

"What about me?" Kaito tilted his head, looking admirably innocent at it.

"Considered carving a new career?" Shinichi said casually. "Your skillsets are a perfect fit for an undercover–"

Kaito laughed. "No thanks. And I doubt your human resource department would appreciate my resume." With that, he slipped a smoke bomb and disappeared after Shinichi's fits of angry coughs.

This was probably the last time he could enjoy hearing them anyway.

.o.

" _Hmmmmm... Hmmm..._ "

Only a week had passed since Aoko came back to work and she'd been to more press conferences than the number of times she ever did after joining the Force. The success of the operation had really changed the world and saved more lives than she ever expected, and she couldn't be more than happy everyday, even if she had to sit through hours and hours of babbling journalists and never-ending trials.

(It was like a domino effect. Once the first and biggest threat toppled, the rest followed the same; They managed to sniff out a couple more smaller criminal organization that were lead by the Black Organization, and all of those were wiped out too. One of it, Aoko remembered, had to do with smuggling and stealing of Big Jewels from all over the world).

" _Hmmmmm... Hmmm..._ "

"What's that song you're humming to?"

Aoko nearly jumped. She turned and blinked at Shinichi, who was looking at her with a fond smile before tapping his pass over the printer machine she just finished using. She shuffled her freshly-printed papers embarrassingly, hoping to hide the small blush on her cheeks.

Besides the joy that came from the BO's downfall, her toasts were perfect, her bus was on time and the rain only started the moment she entered the headquarters. Everything was great today, so naturally, her choice of song to play in her head would be something uplifting and one of her favourites too.

"I'm in Love with a Girl by Big Star." She finally regained her composure to answer. "It's quite an old pop music."

"Ah, I see." Shinichi nodded his head and pressed a couple of buttons before the machine roared to life. "Didn't know that he's into old pop music." He muttered, almost to himself.

"Who?" Aoko tilted her head, almost sounding and looking like an owl

"An acquaintance of mine." An amused look settled in Shinichi's eyes. "I caught him humming the same song as you the other day I met him."

Aoko wasn't sure what to respond. The fact that knowing someone hummed to the same song was already surprising enough, but to also get caught by Shinichi while doing so? She wasn't sure what to call this besides a bizarre, silly coincidence.

"It's hard to find someone with similar music taste these days." She casually commented, and continued before she could register the words that left her mouth. "I hope I can meet him one day."

(In all honestly, she had no bloody idea why she said what she'd said, but seeing how Shinichi returned a smile, she was relieved from the thought that she was being... weird)

"Maybe you already did." Was all he replied as he collected his printed paper before leaving the very dumbfounded-looking Aoko standing by the printer alone.

.o.

Apparently, Kaito's plan for _retirement_ wasn't going as well as he thought.

As he swerved his motorbike to the right and into a narrow alley, where the large jeeps and cars that were chasing him couldn't access through, a bullet hit his windshield, shattering the thin glass to bits. Kaito growled under his breath. He cleaned it just this goddamn morning.

He reached the other end of the alley within seconds and was on the main road again. The jeeps and cars were nowhere to be seen, but Kaito dared not take the risk. He continued at high speed, and made a couple of complicated twist and turns around other cars to make sure he shrugged off all the pursuers.

"Where are we going?" Hakuba, who was sitting behind Kaito during the entire commotion, yelled over the loud wind.

Kaito looked over his shoulder and gave a millisecond glance at Hakuba's bloodied arm. He turned back to the road.

"To the hospital, where else."

"You don't have to." From the corner of Kaito's eyes, Hakuba's raised arm pointed at an empty underpass just ahead. "Just drop me off in front."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

After Kaito slowed the motorbike to a stop under the underpass, he leaned its weight slightly to a side so Hakuba could get off. He remained in his seat with his helmet over his head. He had no intention to stay long anyway.

"I thought you wouldn't come." Hakuba said, pressing a hand over his blood-stained sleeve as a small smirk danced on his lips. "It felt like a gamble with death when I sent you the text message."

"I don't want Akako to hex me."

Hakuba chuckled. "You should really consider my proposition."

Kaito's eyes flickered to Hakuba's arm again before looking at his shattered windshield. "No."

Even though he was thankful that Hakuba kept to his promise and didn't expose his identity to anyone else (especially Shinichi), he wasn't going to consider it a debt that needed to be repaid. He had already made it clear to Hakuba about his _zero_ interest in helping them full-time after he threw the shattered pieces of Pandora into a fire, and he wasn't going to say it again.

No one seemed to understand how much damage he, as Kaitou Kid, had done.

"You can send me the bill for that." Hakuba said, breaking the short silence as he gestured his head at the motorbike.

"I will even if you didn't ask." Kaito sneered and looked around the quiet and empty street. "And are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"

"I've contacted a subordinate to pick me up here." Hakuba explained. "I think you wouldn't appreciate getting yourself questioned by the staff about the gunshot wound on my arm, right?"

"Yes. You understand me so well." Kaito's fake smile didn't last more than two seconds. "If you can contact your subordinate, why did you contact me?" He scowled.

Hakuba sighed and sent a brief, withering look to Kaito. "Because, tragically, you are the only one capable to reach the fastest, even if I texted you last out of everyone."

"I'm sure Akako is faster than me."

"Oh yes she is." Hakuba nodded proudly. "But I don't want her hurt, you see. Though she's powerful, I love her very much. And I–"

Kaito almost wanted to take his helmet off to show how disgusted he was. "I don't want or need you to describe your love story." He retched.

The smugness on Hakuba's face looked a lot more intended than it seemed. The only thing that distracted Kaito enough from plotting Hakuba's death was the sound of a car approaching towards them. Kaito half-turned, his feet hovered over his motorbike pedal and just a step away from speeding off.

"My ride's here." Hakuba said.

In a second after the unfamiliar car came to a stop behind Kaito's motorbike, a frantic, young-looking man leapt out of the car and ran over to Hakuba, his face contorted with worry.

"Sir! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just a minor hiccup during the investigation." Hakuba reassured, while ironically putting pressure onto his arm to stop his blood from flowing.

The rookie was obviously not convinced, but his concerns were forgotten as he observed Kaito incredulously. "This is...?"

Before Hakuba could reply, Kaito started the engine, his motorbike roaring to life as he sped off without waiting for Hakuba's answer or biding a goodbye. He had no interest in doing those two pointless things anyway.

A good ten minutes of driving down random streets later, Kaito changed his motorbike plate number in a secluded alley he found, a systematic habit he cultivated since the day he got the motorbike for his _night job._ Though a hassle, it was necessary, if he wanted to drive back home with a peace of mind that his pursuers wasn't going to knock on his door with guns and knives.

He parked the motorbike in his garage and entered his house, kicking his shoes into the cabinet and tossing his helmet onto the couch before heading up the stairs.

The first thing he did after entering his room was to slump onto a chair and stare out of his window, allowing his intricate mind drifting to a blank. The sky was filled with grey clouds, and a faint, sweet aroma of the ozone filled his nose. He should take a hot shower or continue his tricks' practices (which he was in the midst of doing before receiving Hakuba's emergency text), but he had no mood for either. His weariness alone was enough to knock him into a deep sleep, and the weather was a good bonus for it.

Yes. Sleep was better. It had always been better.

He dug himself deeper into chair and closed his eyes, listening to the howling wind hitting his window like a lullaby.

.

 _Two legs were stretched out on a bed._

 _A bunny soft toy was placed by the side, leaning on peach-coloured walls._

 _Long, slender fingers reached out for the bunny._

 _Fingers slowly curled around and stroked the ear._

 _'Pitter Patter'_

 _Heavy rain was thumping against a large window across the room._

 _A lightning strike in the distant._

 _Cold._

 _A hand grabbed a yellow blanket._

 _Blanket pulled up to chest._

 _Still cold._

 _A sniff._

 _A glance across the room._

 _Empty and cold._

.

Kaito flung open his eyes.

The jolt almost sprained his neck, and he gave a low groan as he rubbed the pounding soreness at the back of his head. He massaged his neck for a few more times before turning to stare at the rain hammering against his glass pane.

For the first time, the therapeutical sound of rain didn't comfort him as much as how it once used to do. The drowsiness was long gone, and his sense of alert was as high as his ceiling, but he couldn't understand what was making him wary.

His eyes slowly travelled past his room, taking in the surrounding as if he just saw his room for the first time; His walls were white, his blanket was blue and he had never put soft toys on his bed in his life. Nothing in his room looked like what he dreamt, yet there was something similar to it...

It was empty, and cold too.

.o.

Aoko was very sure she'd never been to this part of the town before.

No, she wasn't lost, but just bewildered at how her thoughts had stretched to not realize she'd walked so far. It was supposed to be a _short_ night stroll, but judging from the navigation app she installed in her phone, the district she stumbled upon was at least a few streets away from the ramen restaurant she ate at after work.

The street was quiet despite it being half past seven in the evening, though it didn't take Aoko long to realize why. There wasn't much attractions and shops here, compared to the other part of the town, where all the clothes stores, arcade and restaurants were (It would, perhaps, get popular and busier within an hour or two, since the only _thing_ that lined down this street were pubs and clubs).

But for some reason or another, she felt as though she'd been here a thousand times in her life; The crack lines on the ground looked familiar, and she managed to skip just in time to avoid a hump she didn't know existed. Her instinct was pestering her brain to turn back and get out of this unknown place, but her body wasn't acting accordingly.

And as if things couldn't get any weirder, her feet suddenly stopped on its own. She looked up, wondering what to expect of her surrounding, until her attention fell upon a small and least eye-catching bar next to her.

 _the Blue Parrot._

Though the name was quite interesting and out of the norm, it wasn't enough to garner the desire to get a drink. Even if she was thirsty (which she was, with all the walking), she would rather get mineral water from some vending machine. But something inside her reacted again, and simultaneously, her possessed legs shuffled forward and pushed the glass door open. The bell twinkled to announce her arrival, and she nearly jumped when she heard a voice.

"Welcome." An old man, probably age nearing seventy, said and gave a nod behind the bar counter. He set a wine glass down before taking another to clean.

Though she rarely joined her colleagues to go to bars for drinks, she'd raided enough to know how it should look and smell like. But it wasn't close to what she imagined. No scent of spilt beers or smoke. No fancy lights and racks of expensive wines bottles for show offs. It was simple, clean, and everything that Aoko liked it to be (She was finding this place nearly as comforting as her home. Nearly).

She tentatively trudged inside, her eyes glancing past a few men playing billiards among themselves at the other side of the bar. Her legs were acting up again, and she found herself propped up on a highchair by the bar counter in a matter of seconds.

The old man still had a gentle smiling look on his face. His spectacles made him look wise, and his hair was grey and thin. For some unknown reason, her heart gave a tiny squeeze, and it was the first and only thing she recognized and remembered having before; it often happened whenever she visited her father and saw the faint wrinkle lines on his forehead...

This was getting out of hand. Though Aoko knew it was pointless, she slightly shook her head, trying to get rid of the random and probably irrelevant thoughts.

"Miss, are you alright?" The old man asked, noticing her odd behaviour.

His voice was calming enough to sooth the edginess within her, but it ironically made her anxious again. She had spent three years honing her skills to keep her guard up, yet all her trainings seemed to have gone down the drain right now; She was unnaturally comfortable with a man she barely knew, and the odd familiarity of the surrounding wasn't helping to ease her tension.

Instead of coming up with a response that fitted his question of concern, she asked:

"Have we... met before?"

The question definitely came out of the blue, and she wasn't surprised to see the slight confusion in his eyes. But she willed herself to not take back the question and waited patiently for the old man to regain his composure to answer (Maybe she had accidentally come in here drunk before. Maybe she had raided this bar a long time ago before. Just _any_ reason that could solve the head-aching confusions would be good enough).

"I can't say so." The old man finally responded and scratched the side of his face sheepishly. "Because even if we did, I can't really recall. My memory isn't good these days, sorry."

Aoko quickly waved her hands. "Oh it's perfectly alright! I should be the one apologising for that random question." She tried to sound as chirpy as possible, to prevent her disappointment from slipping inside her tone.

His smile was warm. "I'll make sure to remember a fine lady like you from now on."

Compliments about her looks were hard to come by; Aoko didn't have the time to care about her appearance when the Black Organization was still active. But now things were less busier... She wondered when was the last time she had a good hair treatment, or went to buy clothes that weren't meant for work. Right at the thought of it, she glanced down at her pants and shirt.

Quite pathetic, really.

"I'm not talking about your attire." The old man gave a soft chuckle, breaking her thoughts. Aoko lifted her head, cheeks feeling slightly hot as she wondered if he knew what she was thinking. Before she could speak, he continued. "It's more than that."

Now she had no idea what to say.

"What would you like to have?" He asked, saving Aoko from bearing the silence that was growing awkward due to her sealed lips.

"Um-" She squirmed in her seat, having no idea what to order. She glanced across the bar counter, trying to find a menu but there wasn't any. Before she started to get flustered over her silly ignorance, her mouth moved on her own. "Tequila Sunrise."

"Sure." The old man departed to the other side of the counter to start on her drink.

 _Wait. What?_ Aoko blinked, and blinked a few more times. _What the hell did I just order?_

She didn't have the chance to change her order to something else like chocolate milkshake when the old man was already in the midst of making her drink. In mere minutes, he was done and back with a tall glass of orange-coloured drink. The beautiful layers of orange shades resembled a sunrise, and she then spent the next full minute staring at the creation in awe. Her curiosity for its taste was shelved aside for the moment; She couldn't bear to stir the drink, in fear of mixing the colours to a mess.

"Not quite to your liking?" The old man prompted as he eyed at her untouched drink peculiarly.

"N-No!" Aoko blurted. "It looks too nice to drink it."

"Why, thank you." He cracked a light chuckle. "That's quite a compliment."

It was lucky a group of loud men suddenly entered the bar, their laughter echoing and distracting the old man enough to not notice Aoko's slight blush of her random admittance. The old man chimed his greetings as the men crowded over the bar counter, discussing about their orders and the rental of a pool table.

In the midst of the thankful interruption, Aoko finally willed herself and stirred her drink, the different shades swirled and became a full body of bright orange.

She took a sip.

 _Not that bad after all._

.o.

Kaito couldn't remember the last time he'd been into Akako's house (thank god actually), but he always pictured her rooms to look like death; dark, ominous and a bit of dread (With, of course, a couple of potions shelves, magic mirrors and a bunch of old cauldron pots).

So the moment when her butler lead him to the room where Akako supposedly was, he almost thought he had entered a different witch house.

"What the hell is this?" Kaito cringed, his eyes darting over the hearts wallpapers and pinkish-red lights shining down on the furniture. He was too busy being disgusted to spot Akako, until she sipped her heart-shaped teacup with a deliberate loud slurp and unnecessarily smiled in a manner like she was about to bite his head off.

"A room specially to welcome you over, Kuroba-kun." Akako set the cup on the heart-shaped table and rest an arm on her heart-shaped sofa. She pat the empty seat beside her. "Take a seat."

Kaito pretended to think about it, out of fake respect for the witch that almost killed him a couple of times. "Thanks, but I'll stand." He answered as politely as he could. "And how did you know I was coming? Did you spy on me through some smoke from your magic pot?"

"You know me so well." Akako smiled, in a way that would make hundreds of men fall on their knees, but not for Kaito. "Do you want some tea?" She offered.

"I didn't know witches do tea-appreciation." Kaito spoke as he swiftly gave a second glance at the decorations. "Hakuba's habits have rubbed off on you."

"Are you jealous?"

"You don't have to worry about that for another thousand of generations." Kaito smiled courteously when Akako glared. "Anyway, I'm only here to ask a few questions, that's it."

Akako scoffed, sweeping her silky hair over her shoulder. "What's the matter?"

He took in a deep breath, trying to steady himself. "Did you recently play around with your potions?" Kaito quickly continued when he noticed Akako's puzzling frown. "Or maybe, just _maybe_ , you accidentally chanted a few spells wrong and put a curse on me?"

"What are you talking about?" She scowled.

Kaito blinked, unsure all of the sudden. "I–"

"Are you accusing me?" Her veins was starting to pop on one side of her temple.

"I'm not." He said hastily. He remembered that last time when she looked this angry, he couldn't use his bathroom for three days because she made the door disappear into thin air, literally. "I'm just asking. In case you did and– uh, forgotten to undo the curse?"

"I've stopped reading and practicing _curse_ spells since _years_ ago." Akako spoke informatively, for reasons that Kaito already understood.

"I get it."

"You _get_ it?" Akako narrowed her eyes. "I'm no longer doing harm to people."

"I know."

"Then?" She snapped, her bad mood still unchanging.

Kaito raised both hands to calm her down, and to also subtlety act as a barrier for his body if anything happened. "Then... I assume I'm just being me." He finally concluded aloud.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Akako studied him with a mix of annoyance and confusion.

He sighed wearily and reluctantly sat on another heart-shaped couch across her. His stupid story-telling might take a while and his feet were starting to ache. "Well... there's been a couple of weird things happening recently."

"Example?" Akako cast him a _hurry-up-and-say-it-already_ look.

"Just yesterday, I went to the supermarket and _know_ where the eggs are without looking at the signboards." Even recollecting these memories made him shake his head in disbelief at himself.

But Akako begged to differ. She stared at him, a little unimpressed. "Is that supposed to mean something?"

"It's impossible for me to know." Kaito gritted his teeth. "I haven't been to that supermarket for nearly _a year_. And that moment when I found the eggs wasn't a coincidence. I found them because I _know_ where they are."

She blinked, her face still blank.

"Shit, _now_ I know what's the thing that's bothering me the most." Kaito pushed a hand past his head and gripped the end of his hair in shocking realization. "The fact that I actually _went_ to a supermarket _to buy eggs_. _That's_ the problem. I don't even remember why I wanted to buy eggs."

"Right..." Akako slowly stirred her tea, as though she didn't just talk to a lunatic that just escaped from a mental hospital.

"I'm not finished." Kaito growled. "I've been having a few weird dreams."

This slightly caught Akako's attention. "Dreams?"

"I feel as if I'm dreaming _as_ a person, but I… I know that person is not me."

The interest in Akako's eyes slightly faded. "That doesn't mean anything. Anything can happen in a dream. _"_

Kaito pursed his lips. Now he sort of understood why detective loved evidence. At least there were backing to their sayings when no one bothers to believe in you. "But the thing is I remember them. Like I've just finished watching a movie I acted in and remembering it for my entire life. It's as if it's all..."

"All?"

"All..." He lowered his gaze, his brows almost merging. "It's as if it's all... part of a memory."

Akako took another sip of her tea and leaned back on her sofa, close to nonchalant. "I'm not a doctor to decide if what you're experiencing is a form of stress or anything related to mental illnesses. But I can tell you, as a powerful witch, you're not cursed; I don't sense any black magic spells on you."

Kaito tapped his fidgety feet on the ground, his doubts still unclear. "Really–?"

"If you have nothing else, I'll be leaving; I'm going to visit Saguru." She shooed him off, but paused as she eyed him with an amused look. "Unless you would like to come with me?"

He managed to hold back a look of disdain. "No."

"Goodbye then." Akako snapped her fingers, and the next thing Kaito knew, he was standing in the middle of his bedroom, mouth half-open in a rebuttal form that came a millisecond too late.

 _Love sure changes people._ Kaito thought dryly. If it was Akako from three years ago, she would probably strand him on top of the Touto tower or something.

.o.

"Your bruise still looks the same as the last time I saw it."

"Technically, you came over to my house just yesterday." Aoko distractedly glanced over her sleeveless shoulder and returned to her ice cream feast, her eyes now glued on the TV screen. "I guess it'll take another week to heal."

Keiko slumped next to her on the sofa seat with two narrowed eyes. "I like how you can act like nothing happened when you almost died a month ago." She drawled sarcastically.

"That's exactly what I'm doing." Aoko waved her spoon in the air, smiling.

"At least worry about the what-ifs and could-have-been!" Keiko exclaimed. "You're still a virgin!"

" _Keiko!_ That's irrelevant! _"_

"I know it's your job and that's what you signed up for." Keiko sighed, ignoring the overly-flustered Aoko stabbing the ice cream with the spoon. "But shouldn't you try to care about–"

"Like Al Baker once said: _Don't run away before they chase you."_ Aoko cut in. "You can't expect me to be crying for my life before or after every assignment. I don't have the time and energy for that."

The only think Keiko cared about from Aoko's so-called speech was: "Who the hell is Al Baker?"

"He was a famous magician from New York in the early-mid 1900s." Aoko furrowed her brows when Keiko still looked confused. "He was also the Dean of Society of America Magicians before his passing too."

"That's…" Keiko brows competitively merged better than Aoko's. "… very informative. But how did you know all that?"

"Uh," Aoko paused, her voice caught between her throat. She wanted to cook up some excuse to dispel Keiko's wary look, but how could she do it when she couldn't even convinced herself? She didn't remember reading anything about _Al Baker_ or hear his name before, at least not until the moment she said it out herself.

"You're acting rather weird today." Keiko said, quirking an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"

Unconsciously, Aoko lifted her hand to massage the bruise on her shoulder. "I'm fine." She managed a near-perfect laugh (She might be getting use to this façade).

"Don't you feel like you're a little different?" Keiko said, and within a second, she sent Aoko a pointed look as she gestured frantically over the TV screen. "This is exactly what I mean."

"What's wrong?" Aoko didn't get it.

"Why are you on some Spanish channel?!"

"It's French."

"My point still stands! Do you even understand what they are saying?"

Aoko bit her lips and stared at one of the actress on the screen, who was currently crying and muttering out her sorrows. Now that she was focused and taking in the words, she couldn't understand at all. But for the past fifteen minutes before Keiko arrived, she didn't think the language was a problem and was actually enjoying the show...

"See, aren't I right? I think your job is stressing you too much." Keiko sighed, pushing herself off the couch to go to the kitchen. "In the past, I couldn't comprehend why you were so worried about you father when he was chasing Kaitou Kid. But now, I honestly do."

The ice cream's sweet after-taste didn't seem all that enjoyable anymore. Aoko dumped the spoon inside the tub and switched the channel to something else; something she could understand. She tossed the remote aside and let the voices fill her hollow mind.

After Kid died, the Task Force was disbanded and her father resumed his position as the inspector of the Fraud's department, receiving a raise and at the same time working less hours than before. But he wasn't happy. He couldn't _be_ happy, when the man he had been chasing for years disappeared again, and permanently. And he couldn't complain or wish for Kid's return when his life was exchanged for his daughter's–

"...ko? Aoko!"

"H-Huh?"

Keiko shook her head and sipped the glass of water she poured for herself. "I guess you didn't hear a single word I said when I was in the kitchen, did you?"

Aoko gave a sheepish chuckle. "Sorry."

"I said it's been three years." Keiko mumbled, watching Aoko sitting stiffly from the brim of her spectacles. " _Three years.._."

"Three years since Kid died." Aoko elaborated when Keiko seemed to be having the trouble doing so.

Keiko sat back on the couch and took one of Aoko's cold hands, squeezing it like how the nurse from three years ago did when she came to tell Aoko everything would be okay. "Aoko, it was never your fault–"

"He was trying to save me- Us. The hostages. Everyone." Aoko rambled, the tub of ice cream nearly fell off her knees.

Even though three years had passed, it might as well be three seconds; Everything about that night remained fresh in her mind and she almost felt like she was there again, strapped to a bomb vest and tied around the pillar, crying and hyperventilating because she thought she was going to die.

Until Kid came to rescue them all.

Aoko took in a steady breath, making sure her lips wasn't quivering as she continued. "And Kid-"

" _And_ then _you_ spent the next three years abandoning your dream to catch your kidnappers. The Black whatever people." Keiko snapped. " _And_ , again, _you_ almost died because of it." She blabbered on, and pushed a finger into Aoko's bruise.

"That hurts!" Aoko yelped, swatting Keiko's hand away with a growl.

"But not as much as how my heart hurts when I see you like this." Keiko sighed out what seemed to be an air filled with worry and grief. "Not to mention your dad too."

At the mention of her father, Aoko wistfully looked down, her jaws clenched and hoping her tears could defy gravity. "You know, my dad sometimes thinks I hated him." Aoko muttered and squeezed Keiko's hand back. "For missing mom's death anniversary, my birthday and every other things for his job... maybe I _did_ hate him, but I guess I transferred most or all of my hatred onto Kid instead. He's a criminal, so it's right to hate him. It's not right to hate my father."

"Aoko..."

"But- But even though I wanted him to disappear, I never mean it in _this_ way." Aoko grabbed her shirt to wipe her ugly snots away. "And what's worse was I told him I hated him, all while when he was detonating the bomb around my waist."

"You were scared."

"Maybe," Aoko sniffed and squirmed in her seat, trying to buy some time to regain her composure. But Keiko didn't give her the need.

"I know why you're doing this. Your dad knows too, that's why he didn't persuade you otherwise when you said you wanted to become a police officer." Keiko spoke slowly, as if she was trying to explain algebra to a five year old kid. "You are smart, you can be anything you want to be. But this guilt has changed nothing except your entire life. Kid... Kid is still dead."

The last four words instantly unlocked the dam in Aoko an she burst, the tears she was struggling to control came rushing down her cheeks like waterfall. It was too late to regret bringing up the subject about Kid, but she never thought she would react _like this_. It had been three years, and the Black Organization was done and dusted, but despite all that, nothing really changed. She was still the same, old _Aoko_ from three years ago.

Broken.

"I-I just want to tell Kid that I'm sorry." Aoko sobbed, her heart twisting so painfully that she couldn't breathe for a few seconds. "I'm sorry for getting kidnapped. I'm sorry for those hurtful words. I'm sorry for running too slow. I'm sorry f-for everything. I don't know what else to do but t-to be sorry. "

"He'll know, somewhere and somehow." Keiko whispered as she cradled Aoko in her arms. "And he'll forgive you if he knows."

.o.

.

 _Dark night._

 _Bright city lights in the distance._

 _Loud cheers._

 _White shoes tipping forward on the edge of a roof._

 _A large crowd was gathered below the building._

 _Glance away._

 _The sky._

 _The sky was pitch black, except for the big moon in the sky._

 _Gloved hands tucked inside a pocket._

 _Gloved hands took out a big, palm-sized sapphire._

 _The sapphire was hard and heavy._

 _Raised it to the sky._

 _Under the moonlight._

 _It glinted._

 _Breath hitched_

 _A minute passed._

 _Nothing happened, only the cheers from below continued._

 _A sigh._

 _._

It wasn't a nightmare that would wake Aoko up with a start, but she would rather have that if it meant she didn't have to wake up feeling so oddly lethargic and disappointed, even though she couldn't understand why she would be at all.

Aoko groaned and wiped a hand down her face before plopping her arm back on her bed to stare at her ceiling. Comparing it to the whiteness of Kid's shoes, she realized the ceiling she always thought was white had slightly faded to light grey now.

She didn't take more than a brain cell to know the dream was related to Kid. The cheers were from his fans. The gloved hands belonged to his. And the gem was what he had once stolen and returned in the end. The only thing that made her rack her brain to a headache was the absurdity of dreaming it from his point of view _._

But why should she care about what the dream meant? No matter what happened, shouldn't dream just be a dream? _Even_ if she recognized the gem, _even_ if she almost thought she saw herself in the midst of the crowd and waving an anti-Kid sign, the dream meant nothing, and there was no relation to the real world.

It couldn't be anything.

It couldn't have been either.

Aoko blamed last night conversation; it got to be the only reason for the dream anyway.

.o.

Kaito grabbed a spoonful of sauce and mixed it into the eggs in the bowl, continuing where he left off before he went to open the door for his visitor. He actually intended to ignore the bell, but the ringing didn't cease even when three minute passed. For a man who was calculative with time, the detective sure had _lots of_ patience.

Hakuba sauntered past the kitchen counters and scanned over the ingredients and equipment until his eyes laid upon the bowl of Kaito's creation. "What are you doing?"

He considered a sarcastic reply but decided against it. The true answer might be more surprising than a fake one after all. "Making tamagoyaki."

Like expected, Hakuba's eyes widened in pure shock. "And why?"

"Because I feel like it." Ignoring the blonde's perturbed gaze, Kaito continued whisking the eggs almost professionally (He didn't even know his house contained a whisk, much less used it before, but it felt almost as natural as how he handle his favourite card gun).

And it seemed Hakuba noticed too. He watched Kaito's steady whisking for a few more seconds before clearing his throat. "You're especially good at it." He said carefully, and not in a manner of a compliment.

Kaito face fell after he poured the egg mixture into the pan, the loud sizzle filling the short silence. It was also, at that stupid moment, when he realized he had _let_ Hakuba enter his house a good five minutes ago. His head was getting really messed up these days.

He set the bowl onto the side of the pan and scowled. "Why the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm here out of casual concern." Hakuba smirked. "Unlike someone ungrateful, who doesn't even visit a friend when he got shot."

"We aren't friends."

"I didn't say that ungrateful someone is you, did I?"

Before Kaito could argue, Hakuba cut in and waved a circle in mid-air. "I supposed this is what you meant when you said weird things kept happening to you?" Hakuba gestured a hand over the messy counter. "Like doing things out of your norm... for instances, cooking? Sometimes I do wonder if you eat air for a living."

Kaito frowned. "How did you–"

"Akako told me about your visit."

"I don't like how you and her discussed about me." Kaito unconsciously shivered, feeling the hair standing on his arms.

"So besides this whole _being different_ thing, what are the daydreams about?" Hakuba continued, as if he didn't hear Kaito's last comment.

Kaito broke that eye contact to gently flip the egg mixture. The silence continued to stretch, partially because Kaito was still mulling on whether he should tell Hakuba the truth, and partially to test low long it would take before Hakuba's patience broke. But even after a long while, the blonde's face still remained just as serene-looking, and Kaito couldn't help but feel that he had lost a competition he didn't sign up for.

He sighed, half in defeat and half in annoyance. "It's quite... bizarre."

Hakuba chortled. "Will it be any more bizarre than knowing your classmate was Kaitou Kid? Or knowing a jewel that could bleed tears of immortality? Or knowing that your girlfriend is a witch?"

 _Or knowing there's a pill that can de-age you._ "Maybe not as much." Kaito muttered.

"So," Hakuba cast him a pointed look. "I'm all ears."

Flipping the last layer, Kaito switched off the stove and slid the tamago onto the plate, the sizzles and steam covering the silence he was trying to drag. After the egg was set, he cleared his throat, hoping to erase all hesitancy in his voice.

"I've been... seeing things from someone's point of view, like I'm reliving her memories inside of her." He lifted a hand and flipped it from side to side when he knew Hakuba was about to question the plot-hole. "I can tell that it's not mine but a woman's memory. When I move from places to places, I can occasionally see her hands. Her fingers are small and thin."

"You do like to dress up as women from time to time." Hakuba casually inputted. "Couldn't it be the cause? Maybe you got too immersed in one particular role?"

Kaito narrowed his eyes.

"Pardon me." Hakuba showed an apologetic smile, though Kaito wasn't sure if he meant it or not. "So do you know who that person is?"

"I don't think so"

"Any hint? There must be something in those visions that might give her identity away."

 _This,_ was the part he wasn't ready for. "I saw me, once." He continued before Hakuba's eyebrows shot up his forehead. "Me as in Kaitou Kid."

"What happened?"

"Nothing much. Just standing with the crowd and watching _me_ doing a few somersault. It was quite an old heist actually, back when I started out and didn't know of Snake's existence."

"Given the number of fans is nearly the same as Japan's population, I don't think that information helps." Hakuba spoke.

"She's not an ordinary fan." Kaito gave a crooked smile. "I think she hates me."

"You think?"

He lowered his gaze to the plate of tamago. "I feel some kind of dread when I saw me." He mumbled.

Kaito wasn't egoistic enough to think everyone loved Kaitou Kid, but it was still a little scary to think someone held such _emotions_ towards him. He remembered waking up on his bed after the dream, feeling suffocated and a strong urge to yell. Although it couldn't be compared with how he felt towards Snake and his shit organization, it wasn't all that great either.

Hakuba took a step closer, oblivious to Kaito's inner turmoil. "You can _feel_ in the dream?" He asked, his face intrigued.

"Yeah." Kaito paused, trying to confirm with himself again. "Not just emotions. There's some effect on my five senses too."

"Interesting." Hakuba stroked his chin, his eyes distant. "Did something happen before these odd things started? It could be a trigger to these weird events."

It was a good question, but it was also something Kaito had been asking himself since forever and had no answer to it. "All I can say is it started this year." He replied lamely. "There are times when I can differentiate those weird visions from my normal dreams, but there are also times when I can't too. It's hard to keep track."

"Then there are no leads."

"I know."

Stuck at a dead end, Hakuba's eyes lowered to the plate of steaming egg and surveyed it like a prized artefact in a museum. "There's another thing," He said in a slightly uplifted tone, which he always used when he found a new evidence to a worrying case. "Your weird behaviour."

"What?"

Without battling an eyelid, Hakuba spoke. "Have you considered yourself possessed?"

Kaito blinked. "...And you considered yourself a detective?"

The said detective looked offended. "Do you want me to show you my badge?"

"It's just weird to hear it coming from you." Kaito drawled. "Isn't it always about _evidence, evidence_? And now you're talking about supernatural."

"I'm engaged to a witch." Hakuba reminded him dully.

"Oh. _Right_. How can I forget?"

"Is that the reason why you consulted Akako?" There was a flicker of understanding in Hakuba's eyes, and his smile grew more crooked and amused as the seconds ticked. "Because you thought the same as me."

"Don't lump _you_ and _me_ together." Kaito cringed. "Besides, your witch _fiancée_ says it wasn't the case; or at least that's what I inferred from her statement when she said I'm not cursed."

"So I guess you're not then, given that you're still the usual jackass I know too."

"Yeah, yeah. What brilliant deduction." Kaito rolled his eyes as he picked the plate of tamago, while the other hand grabbed the handle of the pan, and trudged to the sink. "I would _love_ to give you an applause but both of my hands are _so_ busy, as you can see—"

"What are you doing to the egg?" Hakuba interrupted.

Kaito glanced over his shoulder. "Why? You want to eat it?"

"No, I just—"

Setting the dirty pan into the sink, he grabbed a pair of chopsticks from a drawer and shoved both the plate and the chopsticks into Hakuba's chest. "You can try it."

The blonde watched the plate and chopsticks in mild concern.

"It's plain and purely tamago." Kaito said, in the most earnest voice he could muster when he recognized the doubt in Hakuba's eyes, one that he often see during their old, high school days. Besides, it was really a genuine offer; He wasn't hungry, and giving it to Hakuba was the same as leaving it in the fridge and letting it rot for the next five days.

For some reason, Hakuba shrugged off his suspicion and compiled without bothering a second attempt of rejection. He accepted the plate and chopsticks from Kaito's hands and began his tiny feast. As if his usual poise and manner of speech wasn't enough to show his good up-bringing, he exhibited his excellent etiquette by taking a small, polite bite out of the egg.

Charmingly, Hakuba chewed once, but he stopped the next second. His jaws seemed to constrict, and they were clenched so tightly together that the muscle on his cheeks popping out. After a long while, he finally managed a swallow, and looked like he just released ten years' worth of constipation.

Kaito didn't need to think to know it's not a good sign.

Without a word, Kaito tore off one chunk of the egg with his hand and shoved it down his throat. And it was an instant _bad move_. He choked, and rushed to the sink to spat it out before gargling his mouth with tap water the next ten seconds.

"Why the heck is it so salty?" Kaito grimaced as he grudgingly washed the disgusting yellow substances down the drain. He glanced back at the quiet Hakuba over his shoulder, who was looking at him with a slightly pitiful smile.

"It's not that bad for a beginner." Hakuba offered.

Kaito wanted to throw back a sarcastic comment, but to think that Hakuba actually forced himself to swallow his horrendous food instead of mocking him made Kaito reconsider his choices. He switched off the tap once his sink was cleared and sighed.

Hakuba set the plate onto the counter. "At least you flipped it well enough to make it look like a tamago."

"Okay stop. Your comments are getting a little disturbing."

"It must be hard on you to know that there are _some_ things you can't do." Hakuba gave that same, pitiful smile again. "Thought I could give you some bit of encouragement."

"Just so to be clear," Kaito eyed Hakuba with a narrowed gaze. "Your bootlicking isn't going to work on me. I'm not going to change my mind about joining your—"

"I know. And that wasn't my intentions anyway." Hakuba smirked. "I just want you to be alive and well for my wedding."

Kaito gave scoff. "I'm perfectly fine. I won't die from such setbacks."

For some reason, Hakuba's knowing smile was particularly annoying. "I hope not." The detective said with a grin.

After chasing Hakuba out of his house, Kaito spent the next hour scrubbing pans and bowls. Like he said himself, he wouldn't die from such petty setbacks. He knew his weaknesses, like the fear of fishes and how he terribly sucked at ice-skating, and he wasn't going to change himself just so to prove he was god-sent and had no fears and excel in everything. He didn't need that title. He wanted to be a normal human.

But there was something particular about his failure today. He was _so_ sure that the tamago would turn out right. It did. He knew it did. The fact that it managed to look like a tamago already spoke volumes, but there was still something missing. Something he had forgotten. Something he should or shouldn't have done...

And the fact that he couldn't remember it was what irked him the most out of everything that day.

.o.

.

 _There was a stool on the kitchen tiles._

 _A woman with dark brown hair was standing beside the stool._

 _Two child-sized feet clumsily propped onto the stool._

 _'Thank you,' the woman took the salt-shaker from two tiny hands._

 _She gave eight shakes of salt into the bowl of yellow substances._

 _'Now you can try it.' The woman passed the bowl._

 _Two small and nervous hands took the bowl._

 _'Don't whisk it too hard. Go in one direction.'_

 _A pair of chopsticks._

 _Whisk. Whisk. Whisk._

 _'Faster. Yes. Just like that.'_

 _Hands were starting to ache._

 _'Okay, it's done enough.'_

 _Nervous hands slowly tilted the bowl of yellow substances onto the pan._

 _The pan sizzled._

 _'Well done.' The woman smiled. 'Not so bad for your first try at making tamago, isn't it?'_

 _Happy._

 _Happy._

 _Happy._

.

After cleaning his kitchen mess, Kaito holed up in Kid's secret room and practiced some tricks till near dawn before going to bed. He barely had three hours of sleep, and even when he peeled open his eyes, the next thing he wanted to do was to shut it again. But he forced it open, staring at his ceiling as he tried his hardest to remember the dream he just dreamt.

Or a memory.

He didn't know what to call _it_ anymore.

But there was something more to _it_. He slowly snaked his hand up his body and rested it on his chest. There was this weird, tingling feeling that he couldn't explain, but he liked it. He liked it _a lot._

 _Happy._

 _Happy._

 _Happy._

Kaito allowed himself to close his eyes for a few more seconds before flinging himself off his bed to go to the bathroom. After washing himself up, he didn't head to his secret room to tweak with his toys like what he usually did. Instead, he dashed down his stairs and pulled open his fridge door, revealing three remaining eggs in the carton.

There was only one try left.

He began rolling up his sleeve.

.o.

" _Hmmmmm... Hmmm..._ "

Kaito caught himself humming the same song again; the one when he accidentally did while waiting for Shinichi on the roof months ago (Though until now, he still had no idea where he heard the song before to memorise the tone so well).

Today had been a good day so far. His motorbike's windshield was repaired, his neighbour's cat didn't shit on his front doorstep, and he miraculously had just enough ingredients for his second try at making tamagoyaki. He wasn't sure if his good mood was relevant to his instinct to suddenly hum this particular song, but he couldn't care less about such details.

" _Hmmmmm... Hmmm..._ "

After parking his motorbike by the pavement, he killed the engine and got off his seat with a jump before skipping a few steps to Jii's bar.

When the bell chimed on his arrival, Jii looked up from the counter, his grey eyes brightening up in surprise (Kaito noticed there were a few extra wrinkles since the last time he saw his favourite bartender in the world, though he decided to push those thoughts to the back of his mind).

"I wasn't expecting you." Jii commented, watching Kaito walking towards the counter with his motorbike helmet under an arm while the other hand was carrying a bag.

Kaito glanced around the bar after he settled himself on a high chair. The regulars he always saw at night weren't around; the pool tables were occupied by a few younger adults, and he didn't need to realize why when he saw the clock hanging at the corner of the bar, the hands showing half past four in the afternoon.

(It was a definite that Kaito would stay inside Kid's secret room for at least a dozen of hours after he entered, so by the time Kaito finished his work and headed to Jii's bar for a quick catch up, it was always close to midnight. But the chores of cooking had distracted him enough to not even glance at the door of the secret room once, and he didn't have the urge to touch any of his tools today too...)

"Anyway, I want to ask you something."

"Yeah?" Kaito perched a hand onto the counter, eyes raised at Jii's solemn tone.

"Did you..." Jii cleared his throat. "Did you bring your girlfriend here before?"

Kaito would have choked on his drink if he was drinking any. He stifled the cough that was hurting his lungs and stared accusingly at Jii. "What's w-with that question?"

"So you did?"

" _No._ " Kaito spat. "In case you didn't notice, I'm too busy clearing mess after mess to have a girlfriend."

Jii considered a moment, seeming as if he was doubting Kaito's words (which he couldn't understand why when that was probably the truest thing he had ever said). "Have I been mistaken...?"

"What happened?"

"There's this young lady that came here around two weeks ago, and she asked if we met before." Jii shook his head, his brows wrinkled in mild confusion. "I told her I don't remember who she was. But when I think back about it, I actually do find her familiar."

A loud chortled echoed in the bar, and a few customers' heads turned over to look at Kaito's direction before turning away disinterestedly.

"Ohmygod did you just got hit on?" Kaito gasped in between his breaths while whacking a hand on the bar counter so hard his hand instantly turned red. "F-For all you know, it could be a pick up line." He said in between his snorts and restrained laughter. After so many things that happened, he hadn't had such a good laugh in a long time.

Jii sighed and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "She doesn't sound like she was joking."

Kaito took in a deep breath to calm his nerves. "What's her name?"

"I didn't get to ask."

"Then we can't get anything out from that." Kaito gave a carless shrug. "And it won't matter anyway, even if she's actually someone you used to know or not."

"I guess so." Jii mumbled, though his eyes were still downcast and worried. It was always typical for Jii to fret for things that shouldn't have mattered, but that was also half of the reasons why Kaito was still alive today (thanks to the backup plans that ultimately saved his ass).

But Kaito also knew how to keep his favourite old man from worrying too; With all magicians' best technique, the art of distraction.

Besides, it was also the main reason why Kaito came over to visit too.

"I have something for you." Kaito took out the box from the bag he brought and placed it before Jii.

"A new trick?" Jii eyed the box curiously.

Kaito knew he had always been a workaholic, but not to this extent. Well, action always speaks louder than words. He leaned forward and lifted the cover of the box.

The way Jii widened his eyes almost made Kaito laugh.

"You... made tamagoyaki?" Jii whispered unbelievably, his enlarged eyes staring at the sliced pieces of said food in the box.

"Yeah." Kaito nodded. "Try it."

He watched Jii take a piece like a hawk, his blue eyes surveying every inch of Jii's face as he took the first bite.

"How is it?" Kaito leaned forward, lips pursed (He hadn't tried it yet because he wanted Jii to taste it first, be it if it was successful or not).

"It's nice." Jii replied with hesitation, and gave a thumbs up before going for the next bite. "I like the bubbly texture. Quite a unique twist to it."

"Really?" Kaito's face lit up, but it didn't stay longer for two seconds as his eyes turned wary. If Hakuba could lie, Jii could do the same, and the latter had much more reasons to do so too. Kaito reached out for a random piece, but instead of chucking it into his mouth like what he stupidly did before, he took a careful bite in the corner and chewed.

It was... exactly like what Jii said.

Kaito blinked in amazement and pushed the entire tamago into his mouth.

(He had certainly outdone himself this time)

"Did you really cook it yourself?" Jii asked with a smile. There was no doubt or insincerity in his tone, and it made Kaito feel a lot more guilty than necessary if he were to lie.

But, well... if picturing a memory and copying the steps of making it while magically gaining a skill (like flipping the egg with a toss of the pan) was considered as _I cook it myself_ , then it wouldn't be a lie if he said yes. Besides, Kaito still _did_ all of the work after all.

"Yeah." He said with his mouth half-full.

"It's good." Jii complimented again, his head slowly nodding up and down. "It's really good."

Both sides of Kaito's lips curled up into a bright smile. He always performed magic tricks to make people happy, but he never knew cooking for someone else could make people happy too. Even if those dreams and visions disrupted his sleeps and always made him wake up feeling weird and fuzzy, he was slowly considering and accepting it as a blessing in disguise. Besides replacing his old nightmares, he was gaining new perspectives.

 _/ 'Well done. Not so bad for your first try at making tamago, isn't it?'_ /

"Do you want a drink?" Jii asked.

Kaito blinked like he just came out from a trance. "Yeah. The usual; Tequila Sunrise."

Jii gasped, his shoulders tensed up. "Tequila Sunrise." He repeated.

"...What?"

"That lady ordered the same as you too."

Before Kaito could think of a reply, a loud ' _boom!'_ erupted outside the bar, and Kaito swore he saw the wine bottles behind Jii shook during the impact. A series of car alarms could be heard faintly behind the glass windows, and not long later, a dozen of people were screaming and dashing past Jii's bar and towards the opposite direction of the supposed explosion. The customers in the bar reacted to the shock with shouts and worried yells too, but Kaito's composure didn't waver. He met Jii's eyes, and through silent thoughts, they sprinted out of the bar. Kaito took his helmet along with him.

They stood by the motorbike he parked outside, watching a burning building just the street ahead. Like what he observed from inside the bar, many people were shouting and running away from the building, and it was only when a passer-by knocked into Kaito then he realized what he ought to do. His grip tightened around the edge of his helmet.

"I should go and check it out–"

Jii grabbed Kaito's shoulder in a tight grip, the force nearly toppling him back. Despite his old age, there were times when Jii could surprise Kaito with his strength, like now. "The fire–" Jii stopped and stared at him with concern, his glasses nearly falling off his nose. "It's dangerous. You should just–"

"Don't worry," Kaito smiled before putting the helmet over his head. He understood Jii's implication even without having to hear it. "I'm not dad."

With that, he jumped over his motorbike and sped off, leaving Jii standing by the pavement, his grey brows still furrowed.

"Kaito-botchama..."

.o.

"It's going to be okay... I'm going to bring you to your mom." Aoko stroked the back of the little girl she was carrying, her steady steps walking past the damaged roads and shattered debris. Her soft humming, which she started to comfort the child, stopped, and was replaced with a merry chime. "See? Your mom's there."

The girl's face left the crook of Aoko's shoulder to see where she was pointing. It was the first time the girl stopped crying. "Mommy!" The girl jumped off Aoko's body and waddled to where her mother was.

"Oh thank you! Thank you so much!" The mother, who was sitting on the pavement due to her fractured ankle, exclaimed as she spread her two arms out before pulling her daughter into a tight hug. The mother continued to thank Aoko in between her sobs, but Aoko barely had the time to afford a smile back as she returned to the fire scene.

When there were unfinished cases in the police force, off-day was just a short term for ' _you-can-sleep-a-bit-longer-than-your-normal-working-days'_. There could be sudden call-ins, sudden meetings, sudden anything that would send you packing up and running back to the office (perhaps there was a new clue found in the crime scene, or a new witness that wanted to testify something). But just five hours before the start of Aoko's off-day, she had successfully solved a week-long murder case with another colleague. And that was why Aoko thought today would be a _real_ off-day for her, because the next time she wore her working clothes would be the day of the trial.

Aoko originally wanted to watch a movie with her favourite and home-cooked hamburger steak, but she had a better idea for relaxation. Donned in a floral sundress she bought just recently, she headed towards _the Blue Parrot_ , wanting to enjoy another round of Tequila Sunrise (It was her first, and probably only drink she would dedicate her life drinking).

And then an explosion happened right where she was passing by, just a couple of blocks away from her destination.

She was luckily far enough to be hit from the blast, but near enough to quickly assist and direct people away from the raging fire. She was halfway leading an pregnant lady to the other side of the street (all while chiding herself for not wearing jeans) when a woman hobbled painfully to her side, her ankle twisted and purple.

 _"Pl-Please! My daughter is around here somewhere! Please help me find her!"_

And Aoko did just that.

The fire had spread from the first floor to the second, and there was nothing that could be done beside leaving it to the firemen, who had yet to arrive. Most of the people who didn't need the paramedics' help had already fled the scene, while those that needed the attention were sitting on the opposite side of the burning building, resting quietly or groaning in agony, whichever that helped to ease their pain.

Though Aoko had done what she needed to do, she continuously look around, trying to see if there was anyone else she could help–

 _'Dad?'_

A shiver ran down Aoko's spine as she turned, but there was no one beside her. She frowned, inwardly swearing she could hear the voice like it was speaking right next to her ear–

 _'Dad?'_

 _What?_ Aoko spun in her position again, her eyes darting left and right. She spotted a couple hugging by a pavement, two female high-school students crying in each other sleeves and a few other adults here and there, but there wasn't a boy, or anyone, near her to be the source of that confused voice.

 _'Where are you?! Dad?'_

Her hand slowly reached to her chest, feeling her heart aching in a way she couldn't comprehend.

Twisted... and very heavy...

 _'Dad!'_

Then another thing happened. There was something ticklish on her face, and without giving much thought, Aoko brushed the other hand over the tingling spot on her cheeks. Besides the dirt and dust she had rubbed off, she found her hand damp too.

Damp with her tears.

Aoko stared at her hand.

 _Why am I..._

A faint sound of sirens could be heard from a distance, and the crying and yelling around her continued on like nothing had changed. But there was this uncanny and terrible feeling swirling in the pit of her stomach, and something within her was compelling her to turn towards a particular direction. She did as what she felt, and the first thing her eyes laid upon was a man wearing a black helmet and jumping over shattered walls and rocks with ease.

Her eyes blankly followed the helmet man as he did his stunts, but as he was about to approach the burning building, she thought she saw something else beside the helmet man. Something–or someone–was running too, and that person slowly merged into the same figure-shape of the helmet man, becoming one.

Someone...

Like...

 _'Dad! Don't go!'_

Her instincts flared just as bright as the aflame building before her.

"Don't go!" She screamed, her hands effectively cupped around her mouth as her voice directed at the helmet man.

Despite the chaos around them, the helmet man miraculously stopped, his feet just a few more steps to the blazing building (She was surprised he heard her, and actually bothered to listen to her).

"Don't go in!" She yelled again when he was giving no reactions beside staying rooted to the ground. "Get away from the building!"

The helmet man slowly turned towards her, and–

A second blast suddenly erupted from within the building, sending more debris and flames flying out in rapid speed. The strong wind and impact knocked Aoko back as she staggered, and the last thing she remembered was feeling herself falling backwards.

And then everything turned black.

.

* * *

A/N: This was supposed to be a sweet, loving SoulMate!AU fic with all the cool transfer of abilities and memories, but I ended up writing something that's totally off with all the KID drama and I don't even know anymore? And now I've outdone myself and it's too long so I gotta split this fic up UGH WHY  
I'm not very sure about this, but hope there's someone out there who happened to like it :')


	2. Epiphany

Someone Out of Town (2)

* * *

.

 _Flames._

 _Flames everywhere._

 _'Dad?'_

 _Smoke._

 _Smoke everywhere._

 _'Where are you?! Dad?'_

 _A choke._

 _Burning throat._

 _There was a shadow in the flame._

 _A gasp._

 _It was a shadow of a man._

 _A small, child-sized hand reached out towards the faint outline of the man._

 _'Dad! Don't go!'_

 _The shadow disappeared._

 _Everything collapsed._

 _._

It wasn't as if Aoko never had nightmares before.

There were times when she dreamt of the night her mother died, or times when she dreamt that her dad died too, in the same hands of the people who killed Kaitou Kid. But no matter what the nightmares were, she would never wake up choking like she was about to die, and having her chest reacting so painfully like a wolf had torn her ribcage apart and was eating its way to her heart.

She never once did, until now.

Aoko flung up from the bed and gave a shout that was loud enough to return an echo in her ward. The blanket had been kicked away and pooled on the ground, but she was still hot. She tugged her hair away from her sticky neck, though it didn't ease her discomfort at all.

 _Hot… hot!_

She closed her eyes in attempts to calm and cool herself down.

Even when she was conscious, the dream still felt vivid in her mind. The sights of the dancing flames… the sounds of crackling fire and faint screams… the heat from the fire and, oh, _the smell_.

The smell of burnt flesh.

Flinging her eyes open, Aoko slapped a hand over her mouth and pushed herself off the hard bed and towards the bathroom inside the ward. She knocked onto an empty bed next to hers and finally staggered her way to the door.

It was lock.

" _I'm using it._ " A voice of an old lady yelled from inside.

"S-Sorry." Aoko could only manage a whisper before dashing out of the ward.

The scent of medicines and chemicals was much stronger outside and it helped to relieve her, but she still needed to release the pent up discomfort in her chest. After figuring out the direction signs, she dragged herself to a nearby restroom and spent the next ten seconds choking air into the basin.

It was always like this after every weird dream she had. Feeling lethargic, feeling excited, feeling disappointed… feelings that she couldn't comprehend. Although all of them faded almost as fast as it came, this was the first time it felt so physical and lasted so long.

She turned on the tap, letting the water to rinse the basin. She felt a little better, but her reflection in the mirror said otherwise; Her lips were pale as ghost and the shadows under her eyes looked like a water reflection of a cave…

Unable to stand it, she began splashing the water onto her face. The cool water managed to give her a sudden dose of energy, but it was as long as the time she continuously slap the water against her cheeks. When she stopped, her weariness kicked in almost as fast as a bullet train.

Aoko looked into the mirror again.

It was the same, though perhaps a little better, she wasn't sure. It might be some psychological effect, but at least the good splash of water subconsciously comforted her to think she didn't look like a zombie that escaped an infected hospital anymore.

Giving a dejected sigh, Aoko turned the tap off and grabbed a few napkin to dry the trails of water that was dripping down her chin. She left the restroom after she was done and stood along corridor, suddenly unsure where to go. She still felt drained and tired, but she didn't want to stay in the hospital either. Despite being here so many times, it, of course, didn't contain any happy memories to distract her enough from whatever that had happened.

All of the sudden, a low growl echoed just loud enough for Aoko to be curious and turn her head towards the commotion.

"She's not in her ward." Gritted teeth. "Did she discharge herself?"

"But the records didn't indicate any of her—"

Aoko gasped when she realised what the cause of the little fuss at the nurse-reception counter was. "D-Dad?"

She was sure her voice was soft, but somehow, her father heard her. He spun around, his eyes darting across the corridor until they landed on her. He heaved out a loud sigh and began trudging towards her after giving the nurse a curt nod of thanks.

"Where did you go?" He grumbled, his brows creased in worry rather than anger. "I rushed down here after the hospital called me and I couldn't find y-"

Aoko closed their distance with two skips. But at the third step, she jumped, and her arms neatly wrapped around her father's stiff neck. Though he was strong and sturdy enough to handle her weight and impact, he did stumble a step back from the shock.

"Are you... okay?" He spoke and shifted his head slightly to look at her.

"I'm fine." Aoko sniffed, inhaling the scent she missed from her old home, like it was the oxygen she needed to breathe (She was honestly better now). After staying in their position for a few more seconds, she finally broke the hug to look at her father's face. She wasn't surprised at his stunned expression, but it did made her chuckle.

Her father didn't join in her soft laughter. "There's something wrong, isn't it?" He looked at her in concern, perhaps wondering if his daughter had went bonkers.

 _/ 'Dad! Don't go!' /_

Aoko shook her head. "I miss you, that's all."

He blinked, taken aback. There was a short, awkward silence before he glanced passed her shoulder, seeming sheepish to look at her in the eye. "Well... I... miss you too." He replied softly.

She couldn't blame him, really. When was the last time she mustered the courage to say such cheesy words to her father? Though Aoko was partially sure that nightmare had something to do with her unnatural act of courage and bluntness, she didn't find the need to rectify what she did. It wasn't a mistake. It was the truth anyway.

The troubling thoughts about the nightmare still etched in her mind, but she decided to push it aside and let it haunt her later tonight. As for now, knowing that her father was here, and still with her... That was all that really mattered.

.o.

Kaito clenched his teeth, allowing only a tiny wince to escape his lips. He took in another deep breath and pinched the tweezers again, pulling out the last piece of shattered glass stuck in his palm before dropping it into the small pile of bloodied, broken glass inside the bin.

Though Kaito had worse injuries than this, what made it troublesome was it happened to his right hand; the hand he used to shoot card guns and pick locks the most. Now, he couldn't even move his thumb well without feeling a sharp, tingling sensation down his entire arm (One of the glass pieces might have struck a nerve or some sort).

But nonetheless, he was still lucky; Lucky enough to escape with just a hand injury and not having half of his body burnt to crisp.

After Kaito dumped his motorbike at a corner and sprinted to the fire scene, he realized he was a little too late to help (in a good way). Most people had fled, and for some blessed reason, the casualties who couldn't escape were sitting in an orderly manner by the pavement, waiting for the paramedics to arrive. Still, he continued looking around, trying to find if there were people who still needed help.

And then he spotted a little girl trudging towards the building.

"What are you doing?!" He dashed over and caught the girl's arm before she could take another step. He wasn't sure if his intimidating black helmet or unintentional strong grip scared her enough to fill her eyes with tears, but the situation was too dangerous for him to care about that.

"My bear..." The little girl sobbed, pointing at the rubbles just before the aflame building. "My bear is over there..."

"It's too dangerous." Kaito shook his head and pushed her towards the direction of safety. "I promise I'll get you your bear. But you have to promise me that you'll go to the pavement and stay there. Okay?"

"O-Okay."

And then after he watched the girl leave, he skipped past shattered debris and rocks and–

 _/ "Don't go!" /_

Even after all these years, Kaito could still close his eyes and picture the memory at will; the memory of the night when he watched the flames leaped and twirled in a fiery dance, engulfing the man he loved the most in the world. The sound of fire crackling... the pillar collapsing... the ceiling caving in...

Basically, he remembered everything.

That was why when he heard the two words... he almost thought he was hearing his own voice.

 _What sorcery bullshit is this?_

It was over, anyway. He had more things to care about now. He needed to buy the little girl a new bear, and he needed a new helmet too. And most certainly, he needed at least a day inside Kid's secret room to distract himself from the memories he didn't feel like remembering at the moment.

After emptying the bottle of saline water over his hand, Kaito dumped it into the bin and took the roll of white bandages from the kit.

For starters, he hoped this would be enough to distract him from any thoughts for the next ten minutes at least.

.o.

26 casualties. 0 killed.

Zero.

The nightmare had stolen Aoko's senses to think straight for the rest of that day, and she had stupidly and completely forgotten about the fire explosion until the next morning when she read the news. As if to make up the effort for it, she spent her entire journey ride to work thinking about the link between the trigger of her nightmare, the fire incident and the black helmet man.

Should it have mattered? Could it have mattered?

But more importantly there wasn't any death, and it would be safe to say that the black helmet man was part of the casualties count, or even better, fine and well. It could be all thanks to his helmet, but Aoko felt good to know that maybe (even if it was just three percent of the reason), her warning shouts had helped him in some way or another.

To put it positively, the nightmare might be a blessing, at least to the helmet man. To her… not really. To the boy who suffered in her dream… not at all.

She must be going insane; to feel for someone in the dream when she didn't even know the person at all (She didn't have any relapse after she left the hospital, but her heart would sink if she tried recalling it). Reassuring Keiko that everything was fine was almost just as hard as reassuring herself now. To top it off with occasional odd behaviours, it was getting harder and harder to simply brush it off as stress from work. It was too real to ignore it as something her brain randomly whipped up.

And furthermore… she _hallucinated_ the fire dream even before she dreamt of it.

With Keiko's wild imagination, she bet her reasoning would go about after-life, reincarnation or even possessing clairvoyant powers. With her father's no-joke demeanour, he would sent her off to let a doctor check on her mental health.

But Aoko felt what she was going through was neither. The senses of familiarity… the realness of her dreams…

She felt like she had tapped into someone's soul.

Then again, _what sorcery bullshit is this?_

So, instead of figuring out what her problem was (since all the answers she had were crazy), she decided to focus on the source of the nightmare.

After dutifully finishing her paperwork, Aoko excused herself from her desk and headed to a couple of floors above, where the storage room filled with all the cold-case files were. She was currently on the sixth file she took out from the fire-related shelves and was reading about a fire that broke out in a hotel. She _still_ wasn't even sure what she was expecting at all, but she continued flipping through and basing everything on her instincts.

"Aoko-chan?"

She straightened her posture in surprise and turned, her hair whipping so fast that some part of the ends accidentally got into her mouth. She sheepishly tugged her hair back and behind her ears, watching Daisuke, one of members from the Criminal Affair's department, walking towards her. It was a little late to try hiding the file in her hands when his eyes moved even faster.

"What case are you reading?" He looked at her. "It looks quite old."

Aoko glanced down at the content in the file. Now that she cared enough to notice, the pages were slightly yellow and dusty. "Nothing much." She answered, while mustering a smile that revealed nothing of her thoughts.

She wasn't sure if Daisuke got the hint that she didn't want to explain her reasons, but he did what she exactly wanted him to do; to not ask further. He simply nodded, ending the conversation.

"And you?" Aoko asked back, mostly out of politeness.

"I just finished running an errand for Inspector Hakuba when I saw you here." Daisuke pointed at the large glass window behind Aoko; the evidence. "Thought I could drop a hello." He smiled.

Aoko wasn't sure what to say. It wasn't like she disliked Daisuke. He was a nice guy, but she didn't expect anyone would go all the way out to greet her. Still, she was grateful, and she decided a little distraction with all the readings about charred bodies and burnt-down buildings would be a little nice at the moment.

"Speaking of which," Aoko closed the file in her hand. "Inspector Hakuba's wedding is around the corner, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Daisuke said, but his eyes immediately turned downcast at the topic, making Aoko slightly guilty and wondering if she said something wrong.

"Something the matter?"

He flicked his gaze to her. "I haven't gotten a gift yet."

 _Oh._

"A-Actually I was thinking if you can… advise me about it?" He blabbered the last part of his sentence, as if the words were burning his tongue.

Aoko blinked. "Shouldn't you know better since he's your chief?" She wondered out loud. "Comparing to you, I'm not that well-acquainted with Inspector Hakuba."

"You'd been to Inspector Kudo's wedding, right?" Daisuke chipped in. "At least you have some experience in gift choosing."

"Well…"

"Just a quick chat over lunch." Daisuke pressed his hands together in a form of a prayer. "Alright?"

Aoko didn't have the heart to say no (It had been one of her tragic traits since a long time ago). Sighing inwardly, she gave in and nodded to his request, and a smile instantly lit up his face, so bright itmmade Aoko's eyes squint.

"That's great!" He exclaimed "So I'll see you la—"

"Hitting on Aoko-chan again, eh? Daisuke."

Both of them turned to stare at the source of the voice, and there, leaning against a shelf with arms crossed was Akira, Aoko's colleague and another member from the Kudo Special Task Force.

"What the heck d-do you mean?" Daisuke scowled, though the blush betrayed the solemn demeanour he was striving for.

"You know what I mean." Akira cast a judging look.

"I'm leaving." Before he stomped past Akira, he turned towards Aoko and mouthed _See you later_ before walking out of the room.

Akira scoffed at Daisuke's departing figure until his shadow was gone. "What does he want from you?" She asked.

"He wants my advice with choosing a gift for Inspector Hakuba's wedding." Aoko opened the file, continuing where she left off as she flicked to the next page.

"Excuses." Akira rolled her eyes. "He's obviously hitting on you."

"I think he's serious about the gift though." Aoko raised an eyebrow when she noticed Akira's slight pout. "If I didn't know better… I would say you're jealous."

" _No!_ " Her shout echoed, and if it wasn't Aoko's imagination, she thought the files on the shelves moved.

"Fine, if you say so." Aoko chuckled. "Anyway, why are you here?"

"Oh, right." Akira slapped a hand over her forehead. "I almost forgotten; Inspector Kudo is gathering everyone for a meeting."

"A new case?" Aoko stuffed the file back into the shelf, her senses on high alert.

"Not sure, but most probably." Akira stared down at her watch. "We should go now." She said, and jogged to the door.

Aoko dusted her hand and followed, but she stopped, and retraced a few steps back until the spot where she last slotted the file she just read. Her eyes glanced to the next file, and she mentally marked the number in the head (She would start from there if she had the time to come back down again).

#289: Kuroba Toichi

Nodding to herself, Aoko left the room.

.o.

It would be a lie if Aoko say she didn't take Akira's words seriously.

When she agreed to advise Daisuke during lunch, she thought it would be over a cup of coffee from the vending machine and perhaps a sandwich from the cafeteria. She wasn't expecting to go to a nice restaurant where there were professionals playing piano and waiters offering them their collection of wines (Of course they didn't get it. There were going to go back to work).

She was doubtful and awkward like a rock at the first half of the meal (Aoko ate pasta while Daisuke got steak. She originally wanted fish n' chips; her favourite food that could never go wrong, but for these past months she'd been avoiding it like a plague). But not soon after and much to her delight and surprise, the conversation became strictly work-related, and he ended up talking a lot about Hakuba rather than the plan of what to buy as a wedding gift. It was fine, either way. As long as it wasn't something that would add on to her plate of troubled thoughts, she was more than glad.

"Anyway, thank you for your suggestions." Daisuke said as they were making their way back to the headquarters, the entrance of the tall and giant building right ahead.

"I should be the one thanking you; for the lunch treat. I didn't help that much." Aoko smiled meekly (Really, all she did was suggest things that she knew would end up on the first page of google search).

"But I like your photo frame set idea—"

 _/ 'Puff puff' /_

"—and I think it'll be a good gift because…"

Aoko stopped in her tracks, leaving Daisuke to walk by himself as he continued chattering about whatever thing that she couldn't hear anymore. His voice had turned into a distant hum, until it was gone and fully replaced by a new sound in her head.

 _/ 'Puff puff' /_

The sound of engine.

It was faint, but she thought she recognized it like the her own heartbeat.

And there was that stupid, familiar feeling Aoko couldn't comprehend again. Her body suddenly reacted on its own as she turned, eyes drifting past the ground until she spotted two figures at the drop-off point outside the HQ building.

One was blonde and standing on the curb, while the other was sitting on a motorbike with a black helmet over his head.

"—And I thought you knew some magic and disappeared." Daisuke jokingly said, jogging a few steps back after he realised he'd been speaking to air. His amused grin faded to a frown when he reached her side. "Is something wrong?" He looked at her in concern.

Her lips remained tightly sealed, eyes still fixated on the pair.

 _What are the odds?_

When Aoko didn't reply (or more like she couldn't), Daisuke followed her line of sight, and within seconds, a smile spread across his cheeks. "Oh, it's Inspector Hakuba." He chimed, his tone filled with a faint sense of pride.

Aoko didn't want to burst Daisuke's bubble, but the person she was looking and focusing on wasn't his favourite boss.

It was the black helmet man.

"Wait— That motorbike guy…!"

She blinked in bewilderment, turning to stare at the side of Daisuke's equally surprised-looking face.

"You know him?" Aoko tried her hardest to keep her voice neutral.

"I've met him once," Daisuke said, his eyes distracted and distant. "It was when Inspector Hakuba asked me to fetch him from an underpass after one of his private investigation. The motorbike guy was there."

 _Oh._ And Aoko was half-thinking if Daisuke had met him somewhere in the headquarters, perhaps being taken in to get some witness statement for the fire explosion. Then again, why and what was she hoping for? Considering the statistics, there were more than tens of thousands of people who owned a black helmet, and the black helmet that the man was wearing now looked a little different from the one she remembered from the fire explosion too…

Her childish desperation to see the real black helmet man was getting a little out of hand. She decided to cast the thoughts to the back of her mind.

For the next few seconds, they continued to stand (quite foolishly) outside the building, mutually watching the exchange in silence interest. The biker suddenly pulled out a file from his jacket and dumped it on Hakuba's hands. And less than a minute of conversation afterwards, he sped off, and Hakuba returned inside the building.

She watched the motorbike turning out to the main road and disappeared down the streets. "He's not from the Police, is he?" Aoko spoke, her tone mixing between sounding like a statement and a question (Their interactions looked rather unprofessional, but she couldn't think of anything besides a working relationship after she saw him handing a file over).

"I'm not that sure. Inspector Hakuba didn't tell me when I asked." Daisuke paused, seeming to be mulling over something. "But I believe he's a good guy."

Aoko pursed her lips, keeping her mouth shut in time before she questioned about his certainty. She had no rights to doubt anyone's capability in differentiating good or bad guys; the man she once believed to be the bad for all her life turned out to be the good one all along.

"Just some months ago, there was a hiccup in Inspector's Hakuba investigation and he got shot in the arm." Daisuke began, as though he could read Aoko's silence thoughts. "And the motorbike guy saved him."

 _Why… does this sound so familiar?_

"Perhaps I've said too much?" Daisuke rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, seeming to sense the oddity of her silence. "Please ignore all of it if you can."

Aoko honestly couldn't. But for the sake of ending the conversation, she only nodded (with no indication of promise) and continued their way back to the office.

.o.

.

 _A glide to the left._

 _A glide to the right._

 _Cool breeze brushed across cheeks._

 _A spin._

 _A glide to the left._

 _Another spin._

 _'You're so good at this and it's kinda unfair.'_

 _A sudden stop. A turn._

 _A girl wearing spectacles was standing on the far opposite, hands on hip._

 _A glance down._

 _The ground was made of ice._

 _Blue ice skates._

 _'I've been practicing.'_

.

Kaito recognized the ice rink.

No matter how hard he tried to ignore its existence, having it located two streets away from his house and stupid flyers stuck in his gates almost twice every month weren't exactly helping him in the case.

It wasn't as if he was born with a grudge against ice skating. He did try learning to skate when he was younger, but the only thing he gained besides scars was humiliation every time he left the rink. And just like that, after being conditioned that ice equals pain, he hadn't walked on one for more years than he could remember.

But here he was, standing before the skate-rental counter and grudgingly staring at the board where the rental hours and price were listed (He had given up wondering how his legs decided to end up here when he was intending to buy some chips from the convenience store).

"I'll like to rent a pair of skates." He muttered to the staff, who had been staring at him sceptically for the past ten minutes.

"Okay." The staff said with the same amount of (lacking) enthusiasm before passing the skates to him after knowing the size of his feet.

 _Bloody hell._ Was Kaito's first thought when he took the black and heavy ice skates. He was really insane. Deeply, enormously, crazily insane—

Kaito settled himself on an empty bench and changed out his shoes. Though it had been nearly a decade since he last wore ice skates, he flicked the buckles and tightened the straps with the aspect like he just worn them yesterday. And after knowing he'd put it on the right way, he tentatively stood up and wobbled as he did. His calves were starting to ache, and feeling regretful might be a little bit of an understatement…

Taking in a deep breath, he willed himself to stomp a foot forward, and another, and another as he slowly approached the entrance of the ice rink. Comparably to the past, it wasn't that bad of the start, though he was still unsteady in his steps and almost fell a couple of times.

He was too busy concentrating how to walk than to count the time, but he was sure he took at least five minutes to reach the stupid ice rink. He sighed, his bored eyes staring across the white, shiny ground when he _finally_ reached the ice rink. And even before stepping inside, he could feel his nose twitching on reflex.

 _Ok. Maybe I might get possessed like what happened when I was cooking tamago and it'll end up fine._ He nodded his head in mock encouragement. _Yeah. Maybe._

With that thought, he lifted his right leg… and slowly… set it on the… ice—

 _SHIT!_

"Be careful!"

Right before his butt fell onto the cold ground, two warm hands caught hold of his arms and pulled him back onto his feet. His tightened chest relaxed from the thought of knowing he wasn't going to die from a cracked spine and he let out a relief sigh.

"Thanks—" He looked up but stopped, and blinked; the sudden sight of his saviour's blue eyes stolen his ability to breathe again.

The brown-haired woman smiled, her hands still warmly holding his arms. "I'll support you." She carefully snaked her hands down to his wrists, and Kaito thought both of his arms were going to fall off. It wasn't because of her strength; She was treating him as though he made of glass. But for some magical reason, her touch was electrifying his nerves to complete numbness.

And he really couldn't breathe.

His pokerface was obviously malfunctioned, and she instantly noticed his discomfort. Her smile faltered, and she looked down at his hands she was holding.

"I'm so sorry!" She retracted her left hand that was holding onto his right, as if she'd touched the surface of the sun. "I hope I didn't aggravate your injury." She muttered sheepishly, her eyes looking intently at the bandage.

"No, it's fine. Just a scratch." He mumbled (Her watchful gaze was making him a little tense, but the only thing that stopped him from stuffing his hand into his pocket and hiding it from her view was because he needed to hold the railings beside him or he would fall).

But his left arm… the one she was still holding… was…

A faint whistle, out of nowhere, snatched away the silence between them. "Wow. I'm away for two minutes and you've hooked up a guy?"

The brown-haired woman gasped, her face contorted in horror as she glared outside of the ice rink. " _Keiko!_ "

Not able to give a turn, Kaito awkwardly shifted his body to his side, watching another female figure approaching the ice rink with the laces of her white ice skates hanging on her fingers.

It was a woman wearing spectacles.

 _…_

 _The spectacles girl._

All of the sudden, something inside Kaito clicked.

In all of his life, he never once thought he had enough time; He needed more hours of sleep, more hours to practice his magic, more hours for everything. But now, for the very _first time_ , he found time had stood still.

His eyes shifted from the spectacles woman and to the side of the brown-haired woman's face. Everything about the latter's features were enlarged and moving in slow motion. Thin brows merging. Long lashes fluttering slowly. A shade of pink spreading across her nose. High cheekbones twitching as when her red lips were doing so.

(He thought he'd seen them before)

Slowly, he lowered his eyes to the ground; the ground that _was made of ice._

 _Blue ice skates._

 _'I've been practicing.'_

 _'I've been practicing.'_

 _'I've been practicing–'_

"–llo? Hello?"

Kaito inhaled, the sound of his own breath snapped him out of his trance. The voices were still echoing in his head, but it had blurred enough to only make his ears slightly tingle. His eyes slowly travelled back up from her blue skates and to her legs, arms and—

Her slender fingers around his left wrist

He finally dared himself to look into her eyes.

When their gaze met, she spoke again. "Are you alright?" Her features strained with worry (which he thought he didn't deserve).

"Yeah." Kaito muttered and gently pushed her grip away to hold onto the railing for full support. He could sense her curious gaze on him, but he averted it completely and hobbled away. "I'm going out." He informed, as if his words would speak louder than his actions.

"Okay." She took a step back and made way for him, which he was beyond grateful for. Once he was out of the rink and stepping onto the unbreakable ground, he immediately unbuckled his skates. The spectacles woman, too, was blatantly staring at the back of his head, but likewise, he blatantly couldn't give a damn.

He just needed to get out of here.

Kaito dumped the skates and cash on the counter and left, not caring when the staff was calling after him to wait for his change. In fact, he walked even faster, until he couldn't hear anyone calling for him anymore.

Once he reached the main streets, he began sprinting all the way back home.

Unlike what most passers-by he knocked into would think, Kaito wasn't running away from anything (At least that was what he believed). He was going to find the truth from what he left under his bed.

Despite all these years, he still kept the hardcopy files on the people and jewels he'd researched in his storage room, just because he thought it might be useful in the future (which it definitely was). And ironically, and thankfully, his laziness saved him the effort to spent time searching for it since he had left the box under his bed after the day Hakuba requested to borrow one of his files.

He tripped when he kicked his shoes off by the door and tripped again when he dashed up the stairs. And the first thing he did once he reached his room was to pull out the box of files out and plop it heavily onto his desk.

Gritting teeth and clicking tongue, he ransacked files after files, his eyes frantically searching for the one he wanted. His injured palm was filled with pin and needles, warning him to slow his efforts down, but the pain wasn't all for nothing; He finally found what he wanted, and all the haste within him left, leaving only wariness. He tentatively pulled out the file, his fingers feeling the rough edges of the cover he hadn't touch for years.

He gulped.

And opened the file.

 _Nakamori Ginzo. Inspector and Leader of Kaitou Kid Task Force._ _Widowed. One daughter._

He flipped a page.

 _Daughter: Nakamori Aoko._

A photo was clipped at the edge of the paper.

Nakamori Aoko's portrait photograph.

 _/ "This is all because of you." /_

The tightening grip on the file cause his knuckles to turned white. Kaito sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes, in attempts to clear his mind blank before taking a second and good look at the photo without any flashback or voices interrupting his focus.

It was her.

 _The voice. Her voice; Why hadn't I realized?_

She had grown a whole lot mature than what was captured in the photograph more than three years ago; Her face now was sharper and serious, and the shape of her mouth was slightly different, as though the lack of smiles for the past three years had eased the curves of her lips… As a pro in disguises, Kaito had endless differences to pinpoint about, but despite all of it, there was one thing that tied back to the familiarity even after three years passed; It was the spark, the thing that made the blue in her eyes glint like no one else—

He found her.

He found the owner of all these dreams.

 _And these dreams… are really… memories…?_

But why?

And how?

What madness was this?

 _If I can see her memories,_ Kaito bit his lips so hard till he could taste blood. _Does that mean she can see… mine… too…?_

His thoughts stopped there. He was too afraid to think any further.

Slowly, Kaito set the file back on the table and released a breathe he hadn't realised he'd been holding. He continued staring at the photo, allowing the time he once thought he lacked to pass him by.

Soon enough, the final rays of the sun had disappeared from his window and night fell. He still made no sense to move the entire time, until the moment when he realized the colours on the photograph were growing grey under his dark shadow. And for a second when he blinked, he thought Nakamori Aoko's lips turned poisonous-purple, and the blue hues of her smiling eyes went blank and _dead_.

Kaito fumbled and sprinted to the switch by his door. With a click, his room turned bright again. The millisecond-blindness caused him to accidentally knocked the corner of his chair when he returned to his desk, but he ignored the stinging throb of pain and desperately focused on the file again.

Good. Her smiling face was still there. Her blue eyes were still shining in the photograph. Not blank. Not dead.

He allowed the guilt to wash over him for a few more minutes before closing the file, deciding that this was the longest he could withstand the pressure in his heavy chest.

.o.

It originally wasn't Aoko's job.

Considering being one of the _victims_ , she was excused from the fire explosion case that the Kudo Special Task Force was requested to investigate by the higher ups. But the workload was intense and having an insane amount of casualties and witnesses to work with required a lot of manpower that Shinichi was currently lacking. Of course Aoko snatched up the chance to participate when he requested for her assistant. Even if she had secretly looked at the files and found no clue to who the black helmet man was, she still wanted to be part of the investigation for the sake of justice.

"I can't recall… I don't remember a thing." Hiroji, one of the male casualties Aoko was interviewing, shook his head to her questions. He looked uncomfortable, not that she could blame him when he suffered a broken kneecap and a bandage around his concussed head.

"It's okay. Take your time. You were with your daughter, right?"

"Yeah. All I wanted was to bring Fumiko out and have lunch." Hiroji frowned and stared at his daughter next to his hospital bed, who was fiddling with a bear soft toy in her hand. "And if anything happens to her…" He continued mindlessly.

"I'm fine, don't worry." Fumiko said. "I'm a strong girl!"

Hiroji managed a smile, and Aoko did as well; it was nearly impossible to stop the tug on her lips. "And you're a good girl too." Aoko added. "Staying here to accompany your dad until he's discharged?"

"Yeah!"

Aoko slowly waked over and squatted next to Fumiko. "Seeing you so strong and brave, do you happen to remember anything strange from the fire incident? Anything at all."

Fumiko shook her head, her eyes suddenly downcast. "No. I only remembered I couldn't find my dad. And I lost my teddy too."

"I see. But you found it in the end, didn't you?" Aoko pointed at the bear in Fumiko's hand and grinned, but her smile didn't stay for long. Now that she noticed, the bear looked way too new and clean to be something you picked out from the rubbles.

"Nope." Fumiko instantly answered her doubts. "Onii-san gave it to me because he promised me."

Aoko looked at Hiroji for confirmation. Instead, he sighed.

"I was asleep and this little one slipped out to play. When she came back, she's stuck to that bear like glue even though I wanted her to throw it away." Hiroji shook his head. "Simply accepting a gift from a stranger…"

"He's not a stranger!" Fumiko whined.

Aoko quickly interrupted before Hiroji could say anything. "Who is that onii-san and what exactly did he promise you?" She asked softly, easing Fumiko's mood back to normal.

"He told me he would help me find my bear during that fire. But he couldn't, so he gave a new one to me, as a promise."

"How does that onii-san know where to find you?"

Fumiko blinked in surprise, her happiness and innocence surely didn't make her think that far. "I don't know." She said hesitantly.

"It's okay, don't worry." Aoko said, fishing out her phone from her pocket and showed Fumiko the screen as she swiped through all the men's profile picture from her photo album. "Is he one of the people in the pictures I'd showed you?"

Her furrowed brows were already enough for Aoko to know before she even shook her head.

 _So it wasn't one of the casualties or witnesses._ "Where and when did he give the bear to you?"

She pointed out of the window. "At the playground two days ago!"

Aoko bit her lips. _And that would mean no security cameras._ "How does he look like?"

"He is tall and… has blue eyes!" Fumiko blurted.

It wasn't very informative, but Aoko couldn't expect anything more descriptive from a child anyway. She tried to not let the disappointment show before pointing at the soft toy. "May I borrow your teddy bear for a while?"

Fumiko looked dubious, but she handed it to Aoko in the end. Aoko began pressing the soft fur, feeling the wool inside the toy and proceeded to rubbed her thumb over the beady eyes. Nothing that seemed suspicious; It was simply a bear soft toy. She handed the bear back to Fumiko.

"It should be fine." Aoko assured Hiroji, though he still seemed uncertain about the gift. She turned back and ruffled Fumiko's hair. "And thank you for being so cooperative and a great help. Here's a little treat for you."

And as though Aoko had done it a million times, she flicked Fumiko's ears and whipped out a lollipop in between her fingers before showing it to Fumiko's face.

It was only after Aoko finished the trick then she realized what she had done.

 _W…What the hell—?!_

The lollipop almost slipped out from Aoko's fingers if Fumiko didn't take it in time. "Wow!" She gasped in awe and glanced up to Aoko excitedly. "Are you a magician?"

Aoko was too dumbfounded by her new-found talent to say a single word.

Fumiko, oblivious to Aoko's turmoil, held her bear high up in the air and continued. "Onii-san is a magician too!"

"… He is?" Aoko blinked, finally able to regain some bits of her composure.

"He made my teddy bear appear by clapping his hands! He's really amazing." Fumiko continued proudly.

Aoko wished she had something to say, but she couldn't think of any. She only stared at her own hand in silence, allowing Hiroji's protective-father-nagging to fill the silence for a short while before she interrupted him with a few more simple questions. After she was done, she wished them well and took her leave.

Besides claiming the fire scene was intense and chaotic, all the victims she'd interviewed today gave her no important clues. Well, maybe except for the mysterious man that Fumiko mentioned. Aoko would have to remember to take that identity of the _onii-san_ down when she returned to the headquarters: Tall, blue eyes, and either a magician _or_ some kidnapper that learnt petty tricks to fool kids. But even so, she hoped it wasn't relevant to this case and it was all just an innocent promise and nothing else (Because truthfully, she wanted Fumiko to keep the teddy bear).

As she made her way towards the lift, her thoughts unknowingly drifted from the case and to her hand; the hand that waved the lollipop out of thin air.

 _How did I…?_

Aoko sighed and shook her head, forcing herself from thinking any further. She still had another casualty on the third floor to care about rather than this additional set of weird behaviour (She _should_ be used to it now, actually). She looked down at her phone screen. If there was still time before her general meeting, maybe she could drop by to visit the mother that she helped during the incident.

Deciding the plan in her head, Aoko made a turn at the end of the corridor, just in time to see a passenger lift door open and the sleeve of a man's hand pressing the floor buttons. The hospital lifts always took an eternity to wait for another, and not wanting to test her level of patience today, Aoko embraced the chance and ran with the speed of light. She slipped inside successfully right before the door closed on her, but her stunts almost caused her to crash into the man in the lift.

"I'm so sor— Inspector Hakuba?" She exclaimed, flustered once she realised who the man was.

His amber eyes twinkled in response. "Nakamori-san." He acknowledged her as a form of greeting. "What a coincidence. I hope you're here for work and not because of anything else. The first floor?"

"Third floor, thank you." She straightened and smiled when Hakuba helped her to pressed the button. "And yeah, it's for work." Aoko patted her notepad before her eyes glanced down to the files in his hands, understanding that he was the same. But her breath hitched when she realised something more to the files he was holding; One of it looked like what the biker passed to him the other day.

The lift fell into silence, only the occasional faint _pings!_ that sounded whenever it descended from one floor to the next. And as the numbers continued to decrease, it unconsciously fuelled the courage that Aoko didn't know she would have in the first place. She cleared her throat in a manner of an attempt-confidence and spoke.

"Inspector Hakuba. May I ask you a question?"

He glanced at her. "Sure," and added his signature smile.

Though the similarity of the file was too intriguing to ignore, she knew coincidence couldn't be count as evidence in court, and what Aoko cared wasn't the content of the file anyway. She had too much on hand to be involved in politics, affairs and whatnots. What she was more interested in was:

"Who is the biker?"

"Biker?" Hakuba quirked an eyebrow.

"I saw him came to the HQ a few days ago and gave you something."

Hakuba blinked, eyes lit with some kind of enlightenment before waving a hand dismissively. "Oh, that. It was just a delivery man—"

"Daisuke told me about him." Aoko said before mentally shooting herself in the head for letting Daisuke's name slip out of her tongue. But what was done was done. She took in a deep breath and continued, as though she wasn't aware of her mistake. "He told me the biker was involved in your private investigation before; the one when you got a gunshot wound in the arm."

He let out a breath that resembled a laugh. "I didn't know the two of you still remain in contact even after we closed the BO case."

Aoko knew what Hakuba was trying to do. She remained mute, not participating in his attempt to change the conversation and waited for his answer.

It seemed he knew what she was trying to do, too. "May I ask you back a question?" He paused, as if he was giving Aoko the chance to reject him. But she didn't, so he continued. "Why are you interested in him?"

"Because he's not part of us, is he?"

His eyes widened. "What?"

She cleared her throat, making sure her tone remained as firm as the first time she said it. "He's not part of us. But he's not an enemy either."

When she watched the way Hakuba's brow slowly merge together, panic kicked her straight in the gut. "Sorry," Aoko bit her lips. "I must be confusing you."

"I've heard more confusing things." His charismatic smile was back. "Besides, I understand what you mean."

"You do?"

"Yes." He said slowly. "And what you said is right; He's not part of us, but he's not an enemy either."

The way Hakuba articulated the word _enemy_ was similar to how she remembered Shinichi spoke to her back then. She wondered what were the chances that the man who saved her from falling to her death that night had any relation to the biker that _worked_ with Hakuba. Calculating her math, the answer seemed near to a zero.

Near. But not there yet.

"After hearing what Daisuke had said, you must be thinking about the man who saved you during the last BO case, isn't it?"

Her head jerked up, feeling her cheeks turning warm at the bizarre thought of Hakuba being able to read her mind. When she realised he was genuinely asking it as a form of a question, she let out an inward sigh.

"Are we not trustable enough?" She mumbled, not exactly answering him but enough to imply the case.

"It's not about trust. But there are times when particular skillsets are needed for particular situations."

 _Like Kaitou Kid._ The name magically popped into Aoko's mind.

Thinking about what Hakuba said, it all made sense. Her father's squad had no idea how to detonate bombs, but Kid knew. Her father's squad couldn't save the hostages by themselves, but Kid could, though with the price of his life—

"Nakamori-san?"

She blinked and glanced up quickly, hoping he wasn't asking a question because she had no idea what he had said other than her name. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry if I offended you." He searched her eyes, trying to see if they contained the hurt he thought he had inflicted on her.

"No. You're right." Aoko quickly cut in, her features impassive and fine. "What you said is true. I should be the one saying sorry; for asking such questions."

He shook his head politely. "It's fine."

The lift door opened on the cue, saving Aoko from having to think about what else to say. It was her floor, and she bowed in a form of a respectable goodbye to Hakuba before stepping out. But when a sudden realisation struck her, she quickly stopped and turned before the lift door closed.

"Oh, and I wish you a blissful marriage!" She chimed.

"Thank you." Hakuba said, his smiling face disappeared behind the metal doors and the lift continued to descend again.

.o.

The wedding was glamorous, much to Kaito's surprise.

What he was most amazed about was the brightness of it. With Akako's tastes and family roots, he was expecting neon green lights, fake spider webs or black laces all around. But no. Everything was mostly white and enchanting, including the bride and groom themselves (even if Kaito hated to admit). Akako's gown was sparkling (which Kaito wasn't sure if it had to do with some magic charms), and Hakuba's suit was as clean as snow; They both looked like characters extracted out from fairytales books.

Like most people said, weddings were usually a good chance for school-gatherings that never once happened too. Almost everone from their high-school class was invited and came. Even their homeroom teacher too. And among the bunch of high-ranking officials, lawyers and detectives guests, their group was expectedly the loudest and rowdiest. And it wasn't Kaito's doing, _not exactly_ at least.

"Do you guys remember that fart bomb prank Kuroba pulled on our math teacher?"

"Oh yes!"

"Good times, good times."

Once in a while when everyone was having their own private conversations, someone in the crowd would randomly bring up an old memory from their high-school, and most of it consisted of Kaito's pranks, which was technically one of the few things that could make their studious days much less boring that it was. Naturally, everyone would burst into synchronise laughter at their own version of memory playing in their head, though all Kaito could remember was getting a month of mopping duties after all his pranks.

(Perhaps he had been spending too much time trying to differentiate Nakamori Aoko's memories from his normal dreams for the past week that he'd almost forgotten what his own memories were)

"Your hair looked the same as ever." Souji, Kaito's old table partner, teasingly give a punch on his shoulder as a greeting and laughed. "Didn't get a girlfriend to fix that mess?"

Kaito waved a hand and rolled his eyes. "Who got time for that?"

"I guess I'm not the only one then—" Souji suddenly widened his eyes, his amused grin turned into a worried gasp. "What happened to your hand?"

"Oh. It's a scratch" Kaito stared down at his bandage. He ought to find something else to change so it wouldn't be as eye-catching as it was now.

"Practicing your magic, I bet."

Just by thinking of the sharp glass piercing in his skin made the hair on his arm stand. "…Yeah."

"You should do one now." Souji prompted excitedly.

"Nah." Kaito shook his head and gestured at his injured hand. "Got a burden here."

Actually, Kaito _would love_ to perform his magic for old times' sake. But a day before the wedding ceremony, Akako specially took the time off her busy schedule to visit Kaito and warn him not to pull any tricks on her big day personally. And judging from her business-like tone, Kaito didn't dare to joke about it, much less going against her wishes; He was sure his bathroom door wouldn't be the only thing that would disappear.

"Bummer," Souji sighed, before knocking his arm against Kaito's playfully. "But if you hold a magic show in the future, don't forget to invite me!"

"Front row with the best view of my assistants wearing bunny costume, how about that?"

The way Souji's eyes lit up almost made Kaito laugh. " _Deal._ "

Their conversations then drifted from past memories to updates on their jobs. It was fine. Kaito wasn't up for small talks, but deep talks wasn't what he was keen in either. He would rather talk about jokes than things that mattered (Because almost all the things that mattered to him were gone now).

In the midst of a conversation about some baseball match held last month (after a few other classmates joined in to talk with Kaito and Souji too), Kaito carefully and quietly slipped himself out. His throat wasn't used to the amount of talking today, and he needed a drink. But before Kaito could get one, a voice called out from behind him.

"I'm surprised you came."

Kaito snorted, recognising the snarky tone even before he turned. From the other side of the wedding reception, Hakuba, in his dazzling suit, was marching towards Kaito with a poise like Prince Charming.

"And I wonder why I came." Kaito drawled. It was kind of a mixed feeling, between wanting to stay at home and make up for the lack of sleep, being afraid of Akako's vengeance for not turning up, and wanting to see Hakuba cry during his wedding toast (Though it didn't exactly happen, his teary eyes were close enough).

"Nonetheless I'm grateful." Hakuba said.

The genuineness in Hakuba's tone made Kaito slightly awkward. He forced himself to look neutral. "Where's Akako?"

"She's with her aunts."

"Be sure to tell her I came."

Hakuba scoffed, but his face fell lax and turned solemn the next second. "So, how's your dreams and weird behaviours?"

"They stopped." Kaito lied without a dab of guilt. He didn't want to talk about it—

"Really?" Hakuba narrowed his eyes, trying to read every inch of Kaito's face.

"Yeah. It just stopped. No more weird stuff."

"For some reason, why don't I believe you?"

"I can't help you if you don't." Kaito gave a careless shrug. "In fact, those dreams and behaviours mean nothing. It should never have mattered anyway."

Really, it shouldn't have.

(But it did. A lot)

Kaito knew better than to think his words would easily convince Hakuba, but he was oddly still and silent, only his eyes moving to study Kaito. And after three long seconds, Hakuba simply nodded (much to Kaito's greatest inward surprise), and turned to face the crowd before them.

"By the way, Kudo is here."

Kaito was still trying to register the shock that Hakuba had decided to drop the dream topic, though it wasn't as if the new conversation was something nice to start either.

"Is it?" Kaito drawled in fake surprise and glanced at the crowd wearily (As if he didn't know when that _man_ was the first person he saw when he arrived, much to his displeasure). He spotted Shinichi in his well-tailored black suit within two seconds, standing just a few groups away and talking with a man that Kaito didn't bother to know.

"Do you know Nakamori-san saw you?" Hakuba continued casually.

The mention of the name made Kaito's heart stop dead. He robotically turned his head and stared at the side of Hakuba's impassive face. He prayed it was only coincidence that Hakuba spoke of her name and not because he knew about the things Kaito didn't wish to talk about.

"Who?" He asked, forcing his tone to sound as plain as possible. Of course he knew who the name belonged to, but he wanted to confirm it.

Hakuba flicked a gaze to him, his eyes slightly narrowed. "Nakamori Aoko."

Kaito took a deep breath and pushed both of his hands deeper inside his pocket, just like how he always pushed his recurring flashbacks to the back of his mind. "When did she see me?" He said, his tone levelled from the years of training.

 _Please not in her dreams. Not in her dreams._

"The day you brought the documents I asked for. And no, she didn't recognise you." Hakuba paused, as though giving Kaito some time for his words to sink in. "She only questioned about your existence."

Kaito relaxed at the answer, even if it wasn't the best one he hoped for. He managed a swallow. "But how do you know she saw me and you?"

"She told me," Hakuba said before stopping to give Kaito a curious look. "You do know she's working for Kudo, right? You saved her during the last operation against BO after all."

Kaito widened his eyes.

 _/ "I won't thank you for anything." /_

He felt his head pulsating to a growing headache. " _What?_ " He almost exclaimed.

"You didn't know?" Now it was Hakuba's turn to be confused.

"I didn't know _that's_ her." Keeping his bandaged hand in his pocket, he took out the other to massage his temple, still trying to link the words and memories in his brain. "I didn't see her face; the forest was too dark. The only thing I checked was her pulse before I left." He muttered with a grit of his teeth.

"Not just that. Don't you have that psychopathic habit of checking everyone's identity before starting an operation?"

"…I've stopped caring."

"Caring?" Hakuba sounded like he wanted to laugh. "That doesn't sound like something you'll _ever_ do, much less stopping yourself from doing."

"For you, yes, you're right." Kaito sneered.

Before he ' _died'_ more than three years ago, he was always up-to-date about the people working in the Kaitou Kid Task Force. He knew their age, where they lived and even the name of their dogs. He knew everything about them like the back of his hand, and as time passed and interactions grew, the entire Task Force felt like his second family (After all he often disguised as one of them. And _twice_ , out of boredom, he joined their celebratory-party after he returned the jewel).

So when the relatives of the Task Force members were kidnapped as hostages because of him, he felt a part of him was stolen away too.

It was a nightmare. And he could never live it down.

Kaito quashed the distant look that threatened to steal his features. He didn't need to look nostalgic, not now, at least. "Why… did she become a police officer? To follow her father's footsteps?" He muttered.

Hakuba was uncharacteristically silent for a short while. "I supposed only she will have the real answer to your question."

 _/ "This is all because of you." /_

Kaito lowered his gaze.

"Saguru."

They turned behind, watching Hakuba's father walking towards them in his pressed, expensive suit. The older man gave Kaito a polite nod before signalling Hakuba to the other side of the ceremony.

"I got to go." Hakuba patted a hand over Kaito's shoulder and gave a squeeze. "I'll talk to you later."

Kaito wasn't going to give him a chance for that. After he watched Hakuba's approaching the group of high-ranking officers, he gave a last glance towards Shinichi's direction before slipping back into the crowd.

The high-school clique was still standing at the same corner, drinking their drinks and laughing at some old joke from the past. Kaito had lost all mood for either, and he found himself standing in the crowd and not knowing where to head next. It didn't take him long before he finally decided what his next course of action was; which was to get away.

Fumbling with his motorbike keys, he snaked his way to the parking lot.

He tugged onto his tie, allowing it loose before starting his motorbike. With the bustling and lively atmosphere, no one cared enough to give him a second glance even when his engine roared to life. After putting on his helmet, he sped off, leaving the secluded, private wedding behind him.

Kaito always went for rides during his free time. He would ride by the pier if he wanted to cool his head. If he wanted the thrill and adrenaline to boost his energy, he would drive on highways. But this was the first time he drove with no idea on where to go.

Though plagued with a senseless direction, Kaito soon found himself in some part of a town, and he recognized a few of the signboards as Kid when he was flying in the sky years ago. He continued riding down streets and passing by shops and food stores, feeling like an empty shell being possessed by a mind that didn't belong to him. But before he knew it, he randomly stopped his motorbike beside an unsheltered flower stall. No, it wasn't because of a traffic light or to wait for cats to cross. He parked it there because he _wanted_ something, and his hands were twitching for his wallet.

"Hello." The florist gave him a once-over at his attire (excluding his helmet). "Roses for a date?" She suggested, probably a guess from her years of experiences.

Kaito paused before shaking his head. He eyed over the limited choices. "Do you sell lavenders?"

"We do." The florist smiled. "A bouquet?"

"Yeah."

Somehow after the purchase, Kaito felt a little different, yet ironically familiar with this feeling. It was the same when he made tamagoyaki on his own for the first time; he didn't know what he was doing, but he knew what to do. He kept the bouquet inside one of his suit's secret pockets and started the engine, twisting his handlebars towards directions of unknown (even if he subconsciously knew where to go).

In mere minutes, the town he recognized had passed him like a blur and he was now on a highway. There were lesser and lesser buildings as Kaito continued his ride, and all he could see were field of grass and scattered lampposts around (He wasn't sure if his instincts already knew, but he was grateful that he kept the bouquet inside his suit or the wind would have ruined the petals and damaged it all).

After some time of driving pass nothing but grass fields, his fingers suddenly reacted on its own and reached out for his brakes after he made a specific turn. He finally slowed to a stop before a large, old gate.

It was a cemetery.

Now that he knew all those random spikes of inclination were related to the emotions of Nakamori Aoko, coming to this cemetery could only mean one thing, and that would also explain his desire to buy flowers.

Kaito parked his motorbike under a tree and left his helmet on his seat. Feeling the flowers inside his suit and making sure it was intact, he made his way through the unlocked gate, not just on the basis of those _spiked_ feelings, but because he himself wanted too.

As he began to wander through the cemetary, his eyes travelled past the carved names, but out of respect, he tried to keep his head low most of the time, silently praying as he walked past the spots that wasn't his stop; His legs knew the lead, even if he had absolutely no idea.

And then he reached.

He knew it even before his legs stopped on its own; The sense of familiarity kicked in again, and he felt like he'd been here a thousand times before. The gravestone in front of him was spot-less and shiny, as if it'd been cleaned recently. There wasn't any offerings or flowers, not that Kaito would know if it had been cleared away by the caretakers, but there was something left on the grave; a photograph in a hand-sized frame leaning against the polished base.

It was a picture of a smiling woman; the dark brown-haired woman who taught how to make tamagoyaki.

Though Kaito already knew (the carved name on the stone was more than enough clue), the realisation still came and bit him in his ass.

"Your daughter looks like you." He said, and he wished the smile on his lips looked real enough if she happened to see it from somewhere, somehow.

Silence fell again and a strong breeze blew by, causing the trees surrounding the cemetery to momentarily sway. The photograph moved slightly, as though invisible hands touched them, but it was the wind. It could only be the wind.

After twenty minutes, Kaito left, leaving no evidence of his presence except for the small bouquet of lavenders behind.

.o.

.

 _A hospital bed._

 _A woman was sleeping on the bed._

 _Machines were surrounding the bed._

 _Two small feet shuffled to the stool beside the bed._

 _A plop._

 _The seat was cold._

 _Two little hands reached out to touch the woman's arm._

 _The arm was cold._

 _A hiccup._

 _The woman slowly peeled open her eyes._

 _'My sweetheart.' The woman's head lifted up from the pillow. 'Why are you still here?'_

 _Silence._

 _Machines continued to beep._

 _'Where's your dad?'_

 _A shake of head._

 _Throat turned sour._

 _'Are you gonna b' okay?'_

 _Vision blurred._

 _A hiccup._

 _'Yeah.' The woman weakly smiled. 'Everything is going to be okay.'_

 _Vision cleared._

 _Cheeks felt wet._

 _Sad._

 _Sad._

 _Sad._

.

Kaito didn't sleep for the rest of the night.

.o.

"No?"

"No."

"No as in…?"

"No as in _no_ , I'm not going to go on a dinner date with your cousin. I barely know him!" Aoko gritted her teeth and returned to focus on chopping her peeled carrots. The last thing she ever expected to do along with cutting carrots was to talk about stupid match-making plans.

"You got to start from somewhere!" Keiko waved her hand in the air desperately before slamming it onto the kitchen counter. "You need a distraction."

"I have enough distractions."

"In case you are that oblivious, the _thing_ that I'm trying to distract you from is exactly your work." Keiko rolled her eyes. "You need to learn how to pamper and love yourself instead of running around avoiding bullets and knifes."

"You've watched too much action and thriller movies. We have paper works to do." Aoko sighed and swiped the sliced carrots into a bowl. She began cutting a peeled potato. "And besides I did relax, didn't I? We went ice-skating that day despite my busy schedule—"

"So it's about that guy."

"What guy?"

"That guy we met at the ice rink."

Aoko groaned, regretted mentioning about the ice skating. "How do you even link those two together? And I thought we're done with _that_ conversation."

"We are _never_ done with _any_ conversations." Keiko leaned against the counter, her eyes glinting from the brim of her spectacles.

"Keiko–"

"It's love at first sight, right?"

Aoko stared at Keiko in disdain. "No."

"Soulmates?

"There's no such things as soulmates."

"And yet you believe in fairies and horoscopes." Keiko snorted. "At least you got to admit he's cute."

Aoko gaped, too dumbfounded to speak.

"I knew it." Keiko giggled behind a hand, looking utterly pleased. "I knew you think he's cute."

"I don't." Aoko spat and continued to chop the potatoes furiously, hoping her unintentional two-seconds pause could be neglected as her dedicated focus on her kitchen work.

Sure… Aoko hadn't seen a man with such nice jaws and sapphire-coloured eyes before, but the reason why she was looking at him so intently wasn't because of the _you're-love-struck_ crap that Keiko teased her about after the man left. She just thought he felt… familiar. Like she knew him from somewhere before (But all the men Aoko ever interacted were either her colleagues or murderers that were rotting in jail, so that reduced the list by at least ninety-percent. For that ten-percent, she still couldn't derive an answer out of it).

Keiko scoffed and twitched her nose. "Though he got the looks, he acted as if a pole was stuck inside his ass; He could be a little more grateful towards you."

"It's not his fault anyway. I helped him when he probably didn't want it."

"But still—"

"In my line of work, I've seen worse." Aoko said, and poured the diced potato cubes into a bowl. She began on the onions. "And besides, we won't see each other again."

"I hope not if he's an asshole." Keiko nodded her head, though Aoko knew there was something more to the sly smile that started to spread across Keiko's lips. "But I hope you do if that means you'll get a boyfriend."

"Enough of romanticising my life."

"Why not? Your life thoroughly lacks it." Keiko rolled her eyes. "The only men I've ever heard you talking about are your dad, your boss and Kaitou Kid."

Aoko almost wanted to applaud herself for not flinching at Keiko's last mention. "What point are you trying to say?"

"Nothing. I'm stating a fact."

It wasn't true, not at all. Aoko thought about other men too, though not romantically like what Keiko wished or as much as the people Keiko mentioned. She thought about the biker and the man who saved her from her death fall... as well as the _man_ in her recent dreams; dreams she couldn't comprehend besides the one where she dreamt in Kaitou Kid's point of view (She once dreamt of taking care of a wounded dove and putting a fart bomb on a teacher's chair. And the strange thing was… she recognized the hand belonged to the same man. At least that was what she deduced from the tiny, identical-looking scar on his left thumb).

 _/ 'Dad! Don't go!' /_

And the little boy, too.

"I'm happy with my life." Aoko said firmly, finally mustering the will to speak the words she hoped sounded like truth.

"Aoko—" Keiko began before she abruptly stopped. She gingerly grasped Aoko's elbow and frowned. "Are you crying?"

"I'm not crying." Aoko sniffed. "Ok, I mean I am, but it's because of the onions."

It must be it.

"Alright, that's it. I don't want to see you crying on your big day, be it if it's because of _onions_. I've already told you not to cook anyway." Keiko pulled Aoko's onion-scented hands away before she accidentally rubbed her eyes, creating more damage. "Drop everything. It's fine if you rejected my cousin's offer to bring you out for dinner, but you can't reject mine."

Aoko stared at her chopped ingredients. Well, she had yet to take out the meat, but… "I want to eat hamburger-steak."

"We'll go eat the _best_ hamburger steak then." Keiko began tugging Aoko's apron out, and before Aoko knew it, she was being pushed out of the kitchen and into the bathroom. "Go have a nice bath and I'll choose your clothes."

"But—"

"Enough _buts_. It's your _birthday_ , can't you have a rest?" Keiko said, the hardness in her features told Aoko that this was an argument she wasn't going to win.

"Fine." Aoko sighed out, though a grateful smile its way to her lips.

For the next fifteen minutes under the steamy water, Aoko pretended the world didn't exist. She inhaled the scent of the lavender soap on her skin, and imagined herself standing in the field of the purple flower. She always liked flowers when she was young, and recently, she found herself tuning her liking towards roses, but lavender was still and always her favourite.

It always reminded her of her mother.

Aoko stopped the water, and almost instantly, the reality she thought she'd forgotten came crashing back down. With a sigh, she left the shower with a towel around her chest and stopped before the basin. The condensation had fogged up the entire mirror, and she palmed it away just enough to see her own reflection. Compared to that time she'd seen herself at the hospital's restroom, she looked way better now.

She plugged her hair dryer and switched it on, the loud sound of humming hot air filled the bathroom. Her eyes began to wander as she let the hair dryer do its magic to her hair, and her gaze returned to mirror and onto the bruise on her shoulder. The bruise was almost gone, leaving only a light brown mark that had paled to a close colour of her skin.

That night from many months ago had become a blur, and there were times when she thought back and wondered where on earth did she get the nerves to even climb on the ledge in the first place. And not just her, some of her colleagues were curious about her predicament and how she escaped without breaking at least fifty of her bones when she was found in the forest. But an agreement had been established between her and Shinichi to never bring up that night or, more specifically, that mystery man that saved her, so all Aoko could do was to lie and faked a story, like what the Task Force and the higher-ups did three years ago to cover up that Kid died because of the hostages; The media and public were told he retired.

She realised the people who saved her never had much of a luck to receive her gratitude. One died and never got credited. The other wasn't allowed to be spoken off and didn't even have a name (to her).

" _Aoko?_ " Keiko suddenly called out, giving a knock on the bathroom door. " _Are you almost done?_ "

"Y-Yeah." Aoko answered back with a shout and flipped the switch for her hair dryer off. She stole a quick glance at the mirror and steel her features, trying to look as though she hadn't been thinking about all the things she did for the past minutes. She had enough to give Keiko to worry about already.

Tightening the towel around her chest, she opened the door, to be surprised by a suspiciously-very-happy-looking Keiko standing before her.

"What—?"

"Since when did you buy this?" Keiko lifted her hands to show a floral sundress, which Aoko had worn the last time during the fire incident (It was a miracle the clothes was still in one piece).

"Quite some time ago. Never had a chance to wear it after I did it once."

"Now is your chance to wear them!" Keiko chimed. "It'll go well with the white flats I saw in your shoes cabinet."

Bless Keiko and her sense of fashion. "Okay." Aoko smiled.

"And I'll do some make up for you too." Keiko declared and grabbed Aoko by the arm to drag her into her room.

"Wait, what?" Aoko blinked. "There's no need for such hassle."

"Oh yes, there is." Keiko gave a stern look. "It comes in a package for your nice birthday treat."

"And what did I do to deserve so much?"

"No, I think you deserve better." Keiko shook her head, her eyes flickering with some kind of seriousness that Aoko couldn't understand. "You deserve so much better than this."

.o.

.

 _A gloved hand._

 _Gloved hand opened to reveal a bright and blue jewel._

 _The metal plate below the empty glass display-case carved the words: Blue Birthday._

 _Gloved hand stuffed the jewel into the suit's front pocket._

 _Broke into a run._

 _Up the stairs and to the roof._

 _Climbed up to the ledge._

 _The wind was harsh. White cape flapping madly._

 _A knock on the shoulder pad._

 _Cape snapped into large, solid wings._

 _Ready, set—_

 _Bang._

 _Wings broke._

 _Part of the glider fell down the building, a loud clang on the pavement._

 _A turn._

 _A group of men wearing trench coat were standing on the roof._

 _A moustache man in the middle was holding onto a shiny, 44. magnum revolver._

 _'I already warned you not to touch that jewel.'_

 _Gritted teeth._

 _The moustache man smirked._

 _'It's been quite a long time, Kaitou Kid.'_

 _Silence._

 _Howling wind._

 _Heartbeat fast–_

 _'Or... Should I call you Kuroba Toichi?'_

.

"289."

That was the first thing Aoko said when she flung open her eyes.

She pressed her palms deep into her sheets to push herself off the bed, her damp neck feeling intensely cold after being exposed by air. She took some time to comb her messily sprawled hair to one side, her eyes still glazed and distant from the dream's aftermath.

"289." She repeated again, the words rolling off her tongue and giving a strange taste.

And then she widened her eyes when she realised what the numbers meant.

 _#289: Kuroba Toichi_

Aoko spared her alarm clock a quick glance before frowning down at her hand to resume her thoughts.

It was half past one in the morning, and there was no way she could sleep after this; Her brain hammered with questions about the dream she couldn't understand. Aoko pinched the bridge of her nose _. Is this really a dream... or... something else?_

Did she really tap into someone's soul like what she randomly guessed back then? Was she in someone's memory? A memory..? Her dreams were getting more and more realistic that it was scaring her more than intriguing her.

 _If_ the dream was somehow real and _if_ Kaitou Kid's true identity was Kuroba Toichi, there were actually more questions than answers now. Why was the file in the cold-case storage room? Shinichi couldn't have been so careless. He should know better than to leave any files related to the Black Organization around for anyone to pick it out and read, having obviously known that Kaitou Kid died at their hands and it wasn't allowed to be known by anyone else.

But she couldn't say for sure now because _stupidly_ , she was just _one file away_ from reading it. And she had no idea who Kuroba Toichi really was.

Aoko needed the answer.

After getting herself hastily clothed in a shirt and jeans, Aoko ran out to the main street to flag for a cab. And it seemed luck was on her side, somehow. One came in less than five minutes of wait, and she instructed the driver to bring her to the Police headquarters the instant she entered the car.

Her brain was on the verge of exploding during the entire ride.

Once they reached, she paid the driver in excess and didn't wait for her change as she bounced out of the cab and jogged into the headquarters, the cold air-conditioned air felt like a slap in the face after the heat from outside.

"Nakamori-san?" The security guard stood up from behind the reception desk and eyed Aoko curiously as she entered the eerily-quiet lobby. "Why are you here?"

"I left something behind." She lied suavely, already recited it well enough in her brain to sound convincing even if it was still a stupid excuse. But it seemed to work, probably with the added effect from her stern expression that stop the guard's puzzling doubts too.

He nodded and pressed a button, opening the automatic gates. "Call me if you need anything else."

Aoko gave a grateful nod and headed towards the lift.

There were more times she could remember staying overnight in the headquarters because of difficult cases, especially the battle against the Black Organization. She'd grown accustomed to the quietness in the dark shadows of the corridors and corners, or at least that was what she thought. All the offices she passed were empty and pitch black, and Aoko had to use her phone's light to find her way to the cold-case file room.

Once she was inside, she flicked the lights on, the sudden brightness blinded her for a second as she made her way to the other end of the room.

#289: Kuroba Toichi

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the file and opened the cover.

 _Kuroba Toichi. World-renowned magician. Death by smoke inhalation._

It was supposed to be a simple case. Most of the facts and evidence tallied enough to rule it as an accidental fire that broke out during an unfortunate performance mistake. But after a new discovery of several empty, non-licensed bullet shells at the scene, it changed everything, making the case more complicated than it seemed.

A year of futile investigation later, it was shelved away as a cold case.

Aoko flipped back to the front page, eyes running across the words until she saw the year of death; it happened nearly 16 years ago.

16years ago? But Snake looked exactly the same in her dream as the last time she saw him at the trial after being condemned to life in prison. If she was dreaming of being Kaitou Kid in Kuroba Toichi's memory, Snake couldn't have looked so old in her dreams. He would only be at most in his late twenties.

And then the few jewels she dreamt as Kid stealing… Those heists couldn't be more than a decade old; She recognized one of the jewels from a news she read in high school (and she once thought she saw herself among the audience too).

The timeline didn't match.

She continued through the file.

Pictures of collapsed pillars, charred ceilings… Nothing that helped.

CCTV checks. No suspicious people (But it malfunctioned at the moment of the explosion).

Over dozens of interrogations with Kuroba Toichi's rivals in the magic industry. Fruitless.

Co-workers and friends bearing grudges on him? No. He was popular among everyone.

Feud among relatives? No. He had a loving wife and son.

Wife and son.

Another flip of the page.

 _Wife: Kuroba Chikage  
_ _Son: Kuroba Kaito_

All the other words and information were drowned out by the photograph that was smacked right in the middle of the paper.

It was a family of three standing in front of a house.

Though the colours had faded to a pale yellow tint, it wasn't enough to ruin the essence of the happy-looking family that was staring back at Aoko, as though they knew she was watching them. She gently traced her index finger from Kuroba Toichi to his wife, outlining her beautiful features and dark purple hair. Slowly, she moved to the little boy, whose height barely reaching his father's waist. He was beaming from ear to ear, but all Aoko felt was hollow.

She brought the file nearer to her face to take a closer look.

Bright teeth, messy hair.

Sapphire-coloured eyes.

Her throat sucked back the breath she couldn't exhale when realisation dawned upon her.

Aoko recognized him—!

 _/ 'Dad! Don't go!' /_

 _Oh my God._

It came at once, almost too fast for Aoko to catch on; Those dreams she dreamt as Kid and those dreams she dreamt as the man with the scar on his left thumb and the nightmare she dreamt as the little boy in the fire...

They were all the same person.

She didn't know if Kuroba Toichi was ever Kaitou Kid before he died, but she knew the Kaitou Kid that faced Snake that night wasn't him.

It was his son.

The boy who begged him not to go into the fire that killed him.

Kuroba Kaito.

All these dreams belonged to Kuroba Kaito.

Kuroba Kaito was Kaitou Kid.

 _Sapphire-coloured eyes._

But he — Kaitou Kid — wasn't dead

 _/ "No, it's fine. Just a scratch." /_

The file slowly slid off Aoko's hand and dropped onto the floor with a loud thud.

She remembered finding the man at the ice rink familiar in all different ways, like how his sapphire-coloured eyes widened when he looked up at her, and how he avoided her gaze when she tried to look at him. And she could only wonder, _why_ , of all the things she remembered, she didn't remember that was exactly what Kaitou Kid did when he was detonating the bomb on her three years ago.

 _Does he know me…?_ She bit her lips, trying to stifle the hiccups and chokes from escaping. _Was it why he… ran off…?_

Aoko slapped a hand over her eyes to stop her tears, but it continued to fall. She clawed her chest to stop her heart from thumping wildly like it was going to burst, but it still did. She prayed to all the Gods she knew to wake her up from this dream, but all she saw when she peeled open her swollen eyes were shelves of tragedies that lacked a conclusion.

It wasn't a dream.

And she never once so badly wished that it was.

.o.

It was kind of like a rhythm. A knock. A bell. A knock. A bell. And if Shinichi forced himself hard enough to imagine it this way, maybe his brain would treat it as some kind of lullaby and soothe him back to sleep.

A knock again. Two seconds later, a bell followed.

Ran stirred beside him and gave a low groan into his neck. "Shinichi… what is… that…?"

Now Shinichi couldn't just leave if as it was when his wife was obviously affected. Giving an irritated sigh, he flung himself out of his bed to stop the annoying sounds, but not before wrapping the rest of the blanket over Ran's exposed legs. He then grabbed his watch from his bed desk and buckled it around his wrist before leaving his room and dragging himself down the stairs. The tranquilliser dart would definitely come in handy if he decided the visitor's reason for interrupting his sleep wasn't good enough.

Another bell came on the cue when he reached the living room.

"I'm coming." He growled and grabbed the handle of his door. On a safer side, he stopped and peered through the peephole, to check if there was a need to change his choice of weapon.

Those stupid thoughts instantly vanished once he realised who was outside. He unlocked the door immediately and flung it open.

The visitor beat him in his greeting.

"Inspector Kudo."

"Aoko?" Shinichi gasped, the weariness in his system gone. He frowned, and blinked, just to confirm his brain wasn't playing tricks on him, especially the part where her eyes were glinting with tears he couldn't understand. "Is everything okay?" He tentatively asked.

She stood there for the full five seconds and gave no answer.

"Shinichi…?" Ran called out from the second floor before she sleepily climbed down the stairs, her slippers slapping gracefully against the wooden flooring. "And Nakamori-san?"

Before Shinichi could turn and address his wife, Aoko spoke.

"Kaitou Kid isn't dead."

And then she suddenly grabbed his arms, shocking him as he staggered a few steps back when she pushed her way through and into his house.

 _What...?_

"You knew, didn't you? Kaitou Kid isn't dead. He didn't die that night. He's still alive." Aoko squeezed his arms tightly and looked at him, face hardened (He presumed she had practised and practised until the words had become stern enough to be delivered without breaking down and looking weak or vulnerable).

"Aoko—"

But her brave facade didn't last for long.

" _Please."_ A whimper escaped from her lips and she began to cry, tears falling down her glossy eyes as the sound of her ugly sobs and snorts echoed in the mansion, and he couldn't look at her without feeling like a bucket of guilt was poured over his head. "Please tell me the truth." She begged again, her shoulders slouched and head lowered.

"Shinichi." Ran muttered when she reached to his side, her cold voice sliced through like a blade over grass.

He knew what her gaze meant.

"It's…" Shinichi sighed, his will to lie gone before it even came. "It's not my secret to tell." He finally admitted.

Aoko jerked, her arms slowly fell back to her side. "Does that mean…?"

"I can't control how you want to interpret it, but that's all I can say."

Shinichi had, selfishly, almost forgotten Aoko's sole and main purpose of joining his Task Force to bring the Black Organization down. He remembered how Kid's _'death'_ had impacted her more than anyone else he knew, but he didn't realise it was _this much_ , and her shock of knowing he was alive all along was relatively similar too.

Though the media and public known him to have retired, Kid insisted in keeping the rest who knew about his _'death'_ to remain as it was, so besides Hakuba, Hattori and himself, no one else knew he was actually alive. Shinichi wanted to ask how and what Aoko did to get that enormous amount of faith to be sure that Kaitou Kid wasn't dead. Even Ran took a year before she dared to acknowledge the possibility that he was Conan. How long had Aoko been suspecting? A month? A year?

Was it since the day when Kid saved her from her death-fall?

Why hadn't he noticed the signs?

Ran was the only one out of the trio to be the least distracted from the never ending thoughts. She spoke, breaking the cold silence Shinichi didn't know was there. "Nakamori-san, are you alright?" She asked.

Aoko pursed her lips. Her eyes wavered uncertainly at her hand before she clenched it into a hard fist. "I got to go." She whispered, almost to herself.

"Where are you going?" Shinichi furrowed his brows. "I can't allow you to wander off in such a state."

"It's late too." Ran cut in worriedly and cuffed a hand around Aoko's wrist. "You should stay."

"I'm okay." Aoko shook her head and tapped Ran's hand in assurance. "I've disturbed the two of you enough. And I need to go."

"If you're talking about work, then no." Shinichi said, his voice traced with an act of superiority. "You're going to take a day off and rest here. We have a guest room."

"No." Aoko replied with the same amount of firmness as he gave. Before Shinichi could try a retort again, she looked at him, eyes fiery with determination that he'd seen once and only once; The day when she wanted to join him to bring the Black Organization down.

He was too dumbstruck to say or do anything, and she took the chance to mutter a "I _need_ to go," again and left for the door.

.o.

"Thank you for sending me home, Kaito-botchama."

"It's nothing." Kaito waved a hand. "I'll drop by your bar again soon."

Jii nodded, his wrinkled hands caressing over the helmet Kaito got for him years ago (which reminded Kaito to buy a new one for him soon). "Anyway, you should hurry home and rest; It's late and you looked tired." The old man said.

 _"I'm fine,"_ was an excuse that Kaito had used it far too often that it'd long lost its effect. Agreeing was a better choice, even if it was a lie. "That's the first thing I'm going to do after this."

Jii smiled, seeming pleased after the assurance. "Alright, goodnight."

"Goodnight."

And Kaito sped off, the chokes from the engines filling the silence of the night.

The problem with his weariness wasn't because he didn't sleep. He was tired from _trying_ to sleep. He'd spent more hours tossing in his bed than getting the rest, and it didn't exactly help when he was unconsciously afraid of the dreams he knew he was going to dream about.

So, instead of driving his motorbike towards the direction of his home, he made a detour, to the place he wanted to go for a long time ago.

The lack of traffic in the middle of the night helped to smooth his driving and he reached his destination within a good twenty minutes. He kicked the side-stand down and got off his motorbike as he pulled his helmet out, shaking away the hair that was stuck to his face. Bracing himself, he slowly set the helmet down onto his motorbike's seat and glanced up, to stare at the old and abandoned building he came for.

It still looked exactly what he last saw; including the dark sky and lack of lights.

Kaito trudged his way in.

The door was broken apart, giving a big enough space for Kaito to enter without touching anything. Every inch of the room was coated in layers of dusts, and at least a dozen kind of different spider breeds had stayed in the corners of the wall at some point of time. The floor whined with every step Kaito made, and he briefly wondered how he even managed to go all the way up to the top floor without alerting Snake and the rest of his gang all those years ago.

After he finished roaming around the first floor, he began climbing the stairs, stopping at each floor to take a brief look around before continuing his way up. His senses would crawl in response when he recognised a few parts of the building, like the chipped glasses and broken windows, but to say that Kaito was nostalgic… it would be the same as saying fishes were adorable. But when he reached to the particular door; the door he truly came for, it would be a lie if he say he never felt sentimental towards this place at all.

There were a few old and flimsy police-tapes blocking the entrance, and he plucked them all down and tossed it to the side. Once all things were out of his way, including the mental barriers that were making his movement hesitant, he headed towards the huge pillar in the middle of the musty, dark room.

Slowly, he squatted before the pillar and reached a hand to touch the cool spot on the ground.

 _/ "This is all because of you." /_

No matter how far he always pushed those memories to the back of his head, it would always resurface back to haunt him instead. It was Nakamori Aoko's voice; those words which she spat with gritted teeth and tears in her angry eyes.

He always used those words to tie him back to the core reason of making sure Kaitou Kid stay _dead_. It was true. Everything happened because of him. Because even if he saved the children of the Task Force members, even if he was called the unsung hero who ' _sacrificed' his life_ for everyone's safety, it didn't make him less guilty for putting the hostages through that traumatic state.

It didn't at all—

"You're here."

Kaito froze, his ears twitched at the sound of the voice he thought would fit better with a snarl, comparably than being all wistful like now.

 _It couldn't be..._

Maybe if he stayed in his position and pretended the voice was just from his subconscious, it would go away.

"Kuroba Kaito."

The voice was too loud and clear to ignore. This was far worse than what he feared the most, and he wasn't prepared for it at all.

His fingers scrunched up into a fist as he pushed his knuckles into the ground, giving him support as he raised to his feet. Slowly, and tentatively, he turned, his heart squeezing as he did.

Once he caught her blue eyes, he breathed.

"Nakamori Aoko."

.

* * *

A/N: Spent literally four days trying to solve the plot-hole. It's still there, but let's pretend it isn't T.T  
I'm utterly sorry about the monster-length (omfg this is like the most I've written for a chapter?!) Could have split it up for a better read, but at the same time I want it to end up nicely by only cutting it off here. Nonetheless hope you guys enjoyed, and I love all of your sweet reviews to the moon and back :')  
P.S: To those who thought it's a two-shot.. I'm even more sorry hahaha, but on a bright note, there's just one more to go


	3. Ineffable

Someone Out of Town (3)

* * *

 _Blue._

 _Red._

 _No. Blue._

 _Or red?_

This wasn't the first time Kaitou Kid landed himself in a situation with bombs. He'd been involved more times than he would like, courtesy to Snake and Kudo Shinichi's weird attraction to cases and murders (The latter brought those misfortune when he _visited_ Kaito's heist sometimes). His experiences were more than enough to make him a bomb-expert now; something he would put in Kaitou Kid's resume if there was one.

Taking in a deep breath, he pressed the wire cutter down slowly, but at the moment when the sharp edge of the cutter touched the wire, he stopped again and released his grip on the tool. He tentatively shifted the cutter blade from the red wire to the blue wire, a process which he'd done thrice already.

His confidence was affected by his doubts.

Yes, there were bombs, and yes, there were all set up by Snake and his men, but this was _different_ ; Never once had that bastard ever strapped the bomb on a _hostage_ (And Kaito would have long made the decision between which wires to snip off if it wasn't _just_ his own life at stake).

"I can't believe you're here."

He looked up at the source of the brittle and hoarse voice. Nakamori Aoko. The only daughter of Inspector Nakamori. Second year at Tokyo University. Good grades. Bright future. Likes to bake.

And a hostage.

He observed her swollen eyes and tear-stained cheeks before lowering his gaze to the bomb and wires strapped around her chest and to the pillar.

"Nice to meet you."

She glowered.

Five minutes left.

Aoko looked out of the musty room (The door was broken down when Kaito kicked his way through). "Where's my dad?"

"He's with the other hostages."

She straightened abruptly, as though she'd forgotten about the weight and burden she was _literally_ carrying now. "T-That means they are all fine, right? Arima-kun and Sakura-chan. The children." She asked, her lips trembled so hard that her teeth were grinding against each other.

Her boundless concern for other people was off the chart for him to understand. "Yes."

"Good." She relaxed her posture and nodded in relief. "That's… good."

Kaito bit his lips. The wires were a little more tangled now. "Try not to move so much." He told her.

"O-Okay." She finally replied after a short silence (He risked a quick glance at her and noticed she was blushing).

He was back to his dilemma again.

 _Blue._

 _Red._

 _No. Blue._

 _Or red?_

The numbers on the bomb only ticked three times before Aoko spoke again. "Why… is it so quiet? Aren't there back-ups and bomb squads?"

He wasn't sure if she was always this talkative or if this was her attempt to forget her nervousness and situation, but either way, it worked for him; he didn't mind hearing her voice over the sound of the ticking bomb.

"Only the Task Force and I know about this kidnapping." He answered.

She pursed her lips. "Why?"

"It's a part and parcel of the kidnapper's demand."

"I don't get it. Isn't this a feud against the Police Force? That's why they kidnapped their family members, just so they could gloat and flaunt their capabilities and achievements and even bring it to the media's attention. And you—" She paused, swallowing hard. "You are here because my father wanted your help, no?"

"I'm grateful you've thought so highly of me—"

"No I don't." She gritted her teeth.

"—but you got it all mixed up, Nakamori-san."

"Explain." She said coldly. "And tell me the truth."

Kaito didn't know if Snake and the kidnappers mentioned anything, or if she had her own kind of conceptions based on the past nights she was captured here, but no matter what, she deserved to know the real truth now, and she _had_ the rights to know it too.

"Their intention isn't revenge against the Police Force." He explained slowly, his muscles flickering in his jaw. "They want me, Kaitou Kid. That's the ransom."

"Y-You m-mean these... Sakura-chan and... the kids.. they all suffered... all because..." Aoko stuttered, her eyes that were once dried from tears were filled with them again. "This is- This is _all_ because of you."

The words went straight to his chest. He fiddled with the tangled blue and red wires, his eyes growing dull and distant.

"I know." He whispered back.

There was a long pause. "Didn't you say they wanted you for ransom?" She spat.

"...Yes." He confirmed it for her.

"Then why are you doing here here? Why isn't my dad here instead?" She fixed him a glare. "Why you?"

"I'm the only one allowed here." He only bit his tongue after the words rolled out his mouth. It was too late to regret spilling the beans.

Aoko stared at him, but he had made sure his hat was lowered enough for her to see nothing but shadows on his face. "You're the only one allowed here." She echoed.

He inwardly winced at her low and overly-calm voice. "...Yes."

"Why?" She asked again.

"That's… also part and parcel of their demand."

Realisation dawned upon her (She was sometimes too smart for her own good). Aoko let out a scoff, and then a low laugh. "They wanted you for ransom, yet they sent you up here to _get me out_? Do you think they'll make the bomb easy to disarm and let you escape unscathed?"

Kaito tried his hardest not to wince at the hope draining out from her voice. He didn't have much in him either, and not knowing what answer he could give, he glanced down at the bomb's timer.

Three minutes left.

"I hate you a lot, do you know that?" Aoko hissed.

It was ironic how he still had the energy in him to smile at this moment. "I know."

"Good. Remember that forever in your goddamn head. Now go."

His smile faded as he jerked his head up so hard his hat almost fell off. "I'm not going to leave you here."

"You—the greatest, God-like Kaitou Kid that everyone admires—should be smart enough to tell this is an obvious trap." Aoko laughed, but what Kaito heard was a hoarse cry and a choke. "Just go."

"No." He exhaled, his fist tightening around the wire cutter. "And that's my final answer."

"You can't detonate the bomb, can you?" Her voice had turned from a breeze to a hurricane. "The last thing I want is to die _with_ you!"

"And the last thing I want is for you to die _because_ of me." He retorted, voice eerily calm that Aoko flinched. It took her only a few seconds to regain her composure, though.

"Do you think I'll forgive you for your nobility?" She snapped, her eyes turning, wide, red and moist. "I won't forgive you."

"I don't need you to."

Aoko shook her head. "I'm sick of this." The sobs were stifled at first as she attempted to put up a brave front, but it didn't last long. Her hiccups grew louder, and her tears had overwhelmed her eyes until it was filled to the brim. "There's nothing you can do so _please_ , just get out of here!"

"And let you—?!" The temper he was trying to control flared, and he raised his voice, wanting to shout back as well. But he stopped, just in time to rationalise the need for his agitation (He wasn't even sure if he was Kaitou Kid or Kuroba Kaito anymore). He knew her fury was part of her act to hide how broken she was, and there wasn't a need for him to further break her to pieces.

Kaito took in a deep breath. "I won't let you die alone." His voice was calm again.

She looked at him in disbelief. "Two deaths aren't going to make things better, stupid idiot!" She screamed, her loud voice booming and echoed across the room.

He ignored her. "Have you considered how your father would—"

"Then have _you_ considered the people who cared about your true identity?!" She bellowed. "Just! Go!" Her ankle-bound legs moved like a tail of a mermaid, and after a good struggle, she gave a kick at Kaito's bent knees, forcing him to fall back on his butt. He sat up and glared at her, and she scowled back at him threateningly.

Her blue eyes were raging like a stormy sea.

Kaito got up to his feet again; his white uniform dirtied by her kick and the dust from the ground. He squatted in front of her, ignoring her piercing gaze that was drilling a hole in his head, and picked up his wire cutter again.

"You're really a stupid, insolent jerk." She muttered.

"And you're a stubborn, feisty mad woman." He said as he tugged and tug onto the wires, knowing fulling well which to cut now.

(He decided to save the blue)

Aoko's glare had subsided to a curious frown. "…What are you doing?"

"Choosing the wrong wire isn't going to make any difference from doing nothing." He muttered, his firm hands steadying the cutter over the red wire. "Either way, we're going to die together."

He didn't give her a second to comment or argue back and pressed the handle together to cut.

"…"

"…"

Kaito had no idea how long he had held his breath, and he realised Aoko did too, with her eyes shut tightly together. His senses had gone into an overdrive, causing the silence to be painful to his ears. He dropped the wire cutter as it cluttered heavily onto the ground and flickered his hazy eyes wearily to the countdown screen.

The numbers had stopped at the 16th second.

"It… st-stopped." Aoko was the first to speak.

There was a thin line between Kaito's consciousness and sub-consciousness, so before he heard Aoko's trembling yet surprise voice, he thought that everyone was _over_ , and that this was some kind of dream he was hallucinating after his death. The wave of relief that washed over him was almost painful in its intensity, and he slumped onto the floor, his gloved hands managing to support him from falling backwards and lying entirely on the ground.

With heavy breath, he glanced up, watching Aoko from beneath the shadow of his hat. She was staring at him with eyes that held nothing of all those previous, angered emotions she had shown. It was something like… gratefulness. She lowered her gaze and contemplated a few seconds before looking at him with the same look.

"Kid—"

He scrambled to his feet, cutting her sentence to a stop and began untying the wires around her. He didn't know what to expect hearing from her, or more like he didn't _want_ to hear it too; Not her thanks or an apology, and not her raging and hateful words either.

Aoko said nothing after the interruption, only watching him quietly as he did his work.

(Maybe she wasn't sure of what to say anymore)

An inevitable silence filled the room again. Kaito could see she was struggling with impatience, wanting to be free from the pillar as soon as possible, but his current speed was just as much as he could do. He wasn't slow on purpose; those bastards had wrapped and tangled the wires to a complete mess, but while he was trying to pull the wires apart, he did take this opportunity to _look_ at her, which might be the cause to his slight distraction...

Her skin was fair despite the lack of light, but the relief on her face made her look less dead than she previously was. Her eyes, which was filled with dread and empty hope, had a glint of life now. And he thought he could see his reflection in her eyes too—

"Did you hear that?" Aoko suddenly gasped, catching him by surprise.

Kaito stopped his untying task and switched his focus to his surroundings. He held his breath, waiting to hear whatever Aoko could possibly be referring to.

Then he did. It was very faint, but it grew gradually louder _and_ louder.

He had heard enough running footsteps to know it wouldn't belong to anyone good.

" _Shit._ " He gritted his teeth, something Kuroba Kaito would say rather than Kaitou Kid, and tried doubling his pace. "They must have known I've disarmed the bomb."

Once she registered his words, she snapped. "Cheaters."

Strange, how she had this weird kind of power of putting a smile on his lips and the worst and inappropriate kind of moments. But as the faint echoes of the footsteps floated to his ears, he wiped the grin off his face; There wasn't much time left.

After much effort, he finally untangled Aoko out of the mess and pulled her up. The tiny whimper that escaped her lips didn't go unnoticed by Kaito, and he could feel her leaning half of her weight against his side.

He stared down at her legs. It looked wobbly. "Can you run?" He asked doubtfully.

"Yes." Her face began to scrunch up. "Maybe."

Kaito couldn't bet on a _maybe_ right now. He helped and dragged her towards the door and out of the room, the musty scent was gone and his nostril was filled with cleaner doses of air.

The sound of footsteps seemed to be coming from the staircase at the other end of the building's corridor. He pulled Aoko to another staircase that was nearer to their side and pushed her up a few steps, which she unwilling did so when she realised he wasn't following her.

"Go up as much floors as you can and hide. Don't show yourself unless your father comes for you."

Her frown deepened. "And what about you?"

"I'll distract them."

Before he could run and execute what he planned, Aoko grabbed his cape, choking him as he stumbled to the start of the stairs again.

"What the—?"

"Distract them and then what?" She spat, still refusing to let go of his cape. "You've just stepped out from your grave and you're so keen to jump back in again?"

"I know what I'm doing."

"No you don't." She murmured behind his head. Kaito could tell she was holding back the brittleness in her voice.

He sighed and half-turned. "Nakamori—"

And then he couldn't speak anymore.

Being used to her angered and frustrated moments, he wasn't prepared when he saw her worried-creased eyebrows and eyes that were brimmed with tears that threatened to spill any second; The sight of her face had stolen his breath, along with destroying all the thoughts he had came up with to respond her.

"You don't have to do this." She mumbled.

"I... have to." He managed to say after regaining his composure.

Most of her tears were blinked away. What was left in her eyes were confusion and... distress.

"Why?" She breathed.

"I've promise your father and myself that I won't let anything happen to you too. That's why."

Despite crossing paths occasionally during his heists, she still knew nothing about him and he knew nothing about her, not exactly besides superficial information. She might think his favourite colour was white when it was blue, and he knew she liked to bake but didn't know what her speciality was. But right at this moment as they stood before one another, something felt wrong—different—with the way she was looking at him and how his chest was responding to her gaze; there were staring at each other as if they were never once strangers at all.

"He's right up ahead! Get your guns!"

Kaito flinched, forcing him to tear his eyes away from Aoko and to the large wall that was blocking the source of the thumping footsteps. There wasn't any time to waste; he needed to run to the other corridor and distract them away before they reached the stairways and spotted Aoko as well—

Seeming to sense what he was thinking, she tightened her grasps on his cape. He clicked his tongue and pulled, and she pulled even harder (This could go on for hours if they had the time to spare, which they didn't). Heaving a sigh, he knocked both sides of his shoulders, dislodging his cape away from his suit.

The sudden release caused Aoko to fall back and slump onto the steps, her eyes turned wide with muted shock as the white cape pooled on her lap. Casting her one last glance, he then sprinted out from behind the big wall, exposing himself as he dashed towards the next corridor that led to the other end of the building.

" _Kaitou Kid!_ " was the last thing he heard her scream before two bullets fired towards his direction.

The sound of the gunshots continued shrilling through the hallway, and the glass windows along the walls were vibrating to the echos of the loud, blasting noises. All of their shots missed, miraculously, and he thought had Aoko let him go a second earlier or later, he might have been—

 _Bang!_

A bullet hit the glass window right next to him, smashing it into bits. The impact forced him to step back and raise his arms, to shield himself from the exploded glass pieces.

It was a wrong mistake to stop.

And then another bullet was fired, hitting him square in the shoulder and jerking him forward. Kaito staggered, and his feet seemed to have loss control as he tripped, and fell through the shattered window.

He'd fallen off buildings more than a hundred times, but this was, by hell, the most painful fall he had ever experienced in his life.

.o.

.

.

.o.

"Does it hurt?"

Kaito blinked, snapping himself awake from the trance. His shoulder stiffened in realisation at the distance Aoko had closed between them; and now she stood right before him, with her head lowered and eyes staring at his left arm.

As he absently raised his left hand, still not making sense to what Aoko was saying, she grasped his palm with two of her hands, sending an electrifying shiver he remembered he had when they were in the ice rink. Over the specific area she was caressing, he finally realised she was referring to the scar on his left thumb, which he got when a dove clawed him during a training many years ago. He almost forgotten it existed until Aoko reminded him... and held his hand like this.

He swallowed, an attempted effort to regain his composure.

Her hands were warm.

Seeming to wonder why he hadn't answer her question, she looked up, and he quickly glanced away and cleared his throat.

"Not anymore." He managed to say without a nervous stutter, thankfully.

Her eyes began running across his face, as though she was trying to absorb his presence "You're really alive, Kaitou Kid." She said, her voice shaky.

His heart was beating so hard it ached. "How did you know…?"

"Your father—" Aoko began, and then winced like she'd said something she shouldn't. "I know, and I… saw how he died. And everything else."

He should have seen the answer coming, but his throat still tightened and twisted into a painful knot. "You can see my memories." He murmured. It was more of a statement rather than a question.

Something flickered in her eyes. Something similar to sadness, heartaches... And as though she knew, she tried to dispel it by mustering a smile—like her life was made of sunshine and promises of a better life.

It would convince him perfectly if her eyes didn't stay sad.

"Is your father the reason why you became Kaitou Kid?" She blurted.

Kaito had forgotten what it felt the first time he put on the white uniform and monocle, along with with the true goal and motivation to why he actually put them on. His mother mentioned it was his legacy. Jii thought it was all for revenge. Hakuba said he was trying to prove his capabilities by destroying what his father couldn't. Everything was a blur, but eventually, it all came down to one thing: his father.

"…Yeah." He answered, his eyes growing distant.

"Can I hug you?"

His eyes snapped back to Aoko, wide and unblinking. There were just so much surprises he could handle in one night. "What?" Kaito whispered under his breath. He might be dreaming about what he heard—

"Can I hug you?" Aoko said again, but softer.

He wasn't sure what to say. Besides how a _"Yes"_ or a _"Sure"_ sounded stupid, he didn't know if it was right for him to agree to the contact (Not for his sake but hers). But Aoko was looking at him with all the seriousness in the world, and Kaito knew she really meant it, and was hoping for a positive answer in her case. In the end, he settled for a nod, and it was all it took for her to release her grip on his hand and take a step closer to _hug_ him.

The last time Kaito remembered hugging someone was years ago. His mother temporarily came back from Las Vegas after she knew he found the secret basement, and she hugged him the moment she first stepped through their house door. Kaito thought it was her effort to comfort him after uncovering the truth that the father he respected so much was once a criminal. But now, thinking back, he wondered if that hug meant something more; because she knew the truth to why her husband really died, and that his son—their son—might end up with the same fate too.

And he did. Almost.

Kaito glanced down at the _hug_ Aoko gave him. It was quite different from what he experienced before; She had slumped her forehead on his chest, hiding her face from his view. And rather than wrapping her arms around his back, she had them tugging at the bottom of his shirt like a lost child.

"It was hell for you, wasn't it?" She mumbled, her voice hoarse and sounding like she was about to cry.

He fought back the urge to pat her head and stood stiffly like a dead tree with his arms stuck to his sides like glue. He only nodded back to Aoko's question, though it wasn't like she could see it, or that the answer wasn't obvious enough.

Aoko sniffed. "I'm sorry."

Kaito looked down at her sharply. "It's not your fault—"

"Not that." She shook her head, her forehead scrapping across his chest. "I'm sorry… for hating you."

It was impossible if she didn't sense him flinching.

She finally lifted her head up to look at him. At this distance, their faces were close, but not very. It was just enough for him to see her blue eyes glistened in the dim light.

"I'm really glad you're alive." She whispered.

In between her smiling and gentle face were traces of relief, if he looked close enough. And he was definitely looking close enough, like he'd never looked at anything or anyone, and carving her into his memory—his new memory that she wouldn't get to see (Which was a good thing, because he thought he felt _something_ more than what he should be feeling, and he wasn't sure if he was willing to let Aoko know about it).

He wondered if she knew he could see her memories too. Even if she knew or didn't know, he felt a compelling urge to tell her he could, and to comfort her just as well, taking the fact that her own life wasn't all that great and yet she still had the capacity in her to feel sad… for him.

His tongue suddenly untied itself and the words he previously didn't dare to say finally fell out of his mouth. "Can I hug you back?"

Most of Aoko's nervous energy had already dissipated, leaving her with a blank look. "What?" She spoke.

"Can I hug you back?" He repeated.

There was an awkward pause. It was only when she stopped blinking and fluttering her long eyelashes then Kaito noticed the slight tint of pink on her cheeks.

She chewed her bottom lip nervously before looking down again, hiding her face from his view. "Y-Yeah."

Slowly, and robotically, he raised his arms to Aoko's back. He didn't exactly embrace her, not really. He simply patted both hands on her shoulders, with a rhythm he remembered his father used on him when he was sad the trick he practiced didn't work out. The quietness in the room echoed even louder than anything else, and if Aoko didn't sniff at the moment, he would have thought she had fallen asleep on him.

"I'm sorry too." He said.

Her shoulders tensed under his continuous patting, and he gave her no chance to cut into his words as he continued.

"I said nothing when I saw you at the ice-rink. You were one of the hostages. You were involved. And I should have at least told you that I'm alive." He lowered his gaze to the fluff of brown hair below his chin. "I thought it'd be better to end with the knowledge that I'm dead. I didn't know… you'll care—"

"If you haven't figured it out, I guess I am obliged to mention it." Aoko interrupted, and he could almost hear the smile in her tone. "Thank you for saving me."

Before Kaito could respond to the moment, a faint sound of a vibrating buzz filled the air and broke into a soft melody that grew louder and louder a few seconds later. Aoko began fumbling in her pocket after realising it was her phone, and Kaito took a step back, which she did too before they awkwardly looked at each other across the distance between them.

"Sorry." She muttered, and glanced down at her phone screen.

Kaito shook his head. He still wasn't sure whether to be disgruntled or relieved, but as of now, he was feeling more of the latter. The chance of screwing the moment up with his awkward silence and possible stuttering of words seemed highly possible, and whoever called had saved him from that.

When Aoko knew who the caller was, her face creased up with uncertainty. He didn't have the chance to catch a glimpse on her screen as she cleared her throat and picked up the call.

"Inspector Kudo."

Kaito instantly frowned. To think that of all people in the world, it was that detective who unintentionally saved him with his call, but what did he want with Aoko at such a timing of the night anyway?

"Yes, I'm fine." She said into the phone and paused. "I'll be going to work later. Yes. Yes. No, I don't need a day off. Really. Thank you Inspector Kudo. Okay, I'll see you later." After the conversation finished, she cut the call and looked up at Kaito.

"Kudo Shinichi.'' He scoffed. It was more of a statement than a question.

Aoko tilted her head. "You know him?"

"An… acquaintance." He averted his eyes.

She twitched her lips almost knowingly. "I see."

Her smile drew his eyes back to her. He had to admit her smile was pretty to look at, and he wished he had the capability to smile back, to at least encourage her to do that more often so, but his thoughts were weighing heavily in his head and he could barely afford a twitch in his lips.

"Can I ask you a question?" He muttered, gulping down the clot of nerves in his throat.

Aoko nodded, waiting.

"Why… did you become a police officer?"

Her lips parted to his question, and she looked at him with enough intensity to mute him and his urge to take back his words. "On the surface, some people thought I'm following my father's footsteps. And for those who knew about my hostage situation, they thought it was because of you." She looked away sheepishly. "But no matter what the reason was, it didn't matter anymore; Because I'm not going to stop what I am doing now. I am happy with where I am."

He wanted to believe her words, but not because of lessening his guilt (and he considered the possibility that she was bluffing to do so too). So he studied her, trying to hunt her face for any indication of a lie, and he couldn't see any. Instead, he saw something else—the genuineness in her eyes—and in a world where darkness and deceptions were interminable, it was rather refreshing and up-lifting to see.

"I'm glad you're happy." He confirmed it for her.

She smiled broadly, exactly proving that point. It only faded a little as she inclined her head curiously at him "Then what about you?"

Kaito lowered his gaze and said nothing. It felt like it was just yesterday since the BO was finally put down, and it would be a lie if he said he didn't like the thrill of being Kaitou Kid. The adrenaline was one of the few things he missed, but he could have all that without stealing and crossing path with bad guys and guns; by being a magician rather than the ghost of his father.

Maybe he should start performing at parks, where there wasn't any superficial need to look cool and charming for the children and old retirees that wanted to see his magic shows. He would slowly gain supporters and audiences from there, and be known as Kuroba Kaito the Magician rather than Kaitou Kid the Magician Thief. He believed he had tweaked enough tools and trained himself well enough over the years in his secret basement to do just that.

And perhaps among the crowd of audiences one day, Aoko would be smiling instead of scowling with an anti-Kid sign in her hands.

Yeah. It seemed like a good idea.

.o.

.

 _'Breaking news: This morning, the Police Force had received a retirement notice from Kaitou Kid. The notice was confirmed to have come from its true source, and the Task Force are now going to…'_

 _Remote in hand._

 _A click._

 _The TV was switched off._

 _A sniff._

 _Gaze lowered._

 _Fingers began caressing a piece of white cloth—cape._

 _Kaitou Kid's cape._

 _Blurry image._

 _Eyes felt hot._

 _Two drops fell onto the cape._

 _A hiccup._

 _The grasp on the cloth tightened._

 _'He's gone.'_

 _._

.

 _Darkness._

 _Spatters of white spots._

 _Fluttering eyelids._

 _White ceiling._

 _A groan. Muffled behind the oxygen mask._

 _Breathe in._

 _Pain._

 _Breathe out._

 _Pain._

 _Arms felt heavy. Like cement._

 _Pain._

 _Another groan._

 _A blurry figure blocked the view of the white ceiling._

 _One blink. Two blink._

 _The blurry figure became Saguru Hakuba._

 _'You're finally awake.'_

 _._

.o.

"Inspector Kudo."

The moment Shinichi recognised the voice, he glanced up, staring at Aoko as she stood by the entrance with her knuckles on his glass door, preparing for a knock.

"Aoko." He greeted.

"I'd just came." She informed sheepishly, putting both hands behind her thin back. "And Akira told me you're looking for me."

Her clothes were different from last night, which meant she'd at least went home before coming to work. He unconsciously nodded to the observation and gestured her to come inside his private office.

"Take a seat."

Aoko obliged and sat on one of the chairs across his desk. This wasn't the first time they met privately like this, but something seemed a little different. Her expressions looked more fresh, and her brows weren't as furrowed as what he saw most of the time; it seemed like the barriers around Aoko, which Shinichi never knew even existed, were removed. Not all. But maybe some _or_ most of it. She still had that seriousness in her features, but Shinichi wasn't sure if it was because he was senior in rank or it was something to do with hereditary (In the Police Force, Inspector Nakamori was quite known for the passion he had towards his work after all).

Shinichi pushed all his papers aside and settled both arms on his table. "Are you alright?" He began. It was the only thing he knew to say to start the conversation.

"I'm fine." Aoko nodded, before shifting her weight on the chair nervously. "But I am sorry about going to your house last night and throwing a fit. I… hope you can help to express my apologies to Ran-san too."

"We don't blame you." He insisted quickly. "We were only worried."

"I still have to apologise."

"Then I have to apologise too." Shinichi stated, earning a widen gaze from Aoko. "For not being frank about Kaitou Kid even when I knew how important the truth of his well-being is to you."

"Like you'd said, it's not your secret to tell." She spoke evenly. "And I understand."

"Nonetheless, I still kept the truth from you. And that's a fact."

Perhaps deciding it was pointless to change his mind, she simply nodded, leaving his words as a mark of conclusion. It was rather convenient for him too, to move on to the next puzzling question which he'd called her into his office to ask about.

He cleared his throat. "So, where did you go after you left my house?"

Aoko fidgeted in her seat, and Shinichi wondered at the late moment if it was something he shouldn't have asked. His jaws tightened, with guilt weighing down his shoulders. "If it's something sensitive—"

"Not really, no." Aoko shook her head. "I… went back to the building where the children of the Task Force's members were kidnapped three years ago."

He would have repeated every single word of her previous sentence if it wasn't so taxing to his tied-up tongue. "You—" He shot her an uncertain gaze. "And are you… really alright?"

"I'm really fine." She nodded assuringly. "I just needed closure, and I've got it."

Shinichi regarded her carefully for a moment and had came up with two verdicts: Aoko had either regained all of her composure overnight or became a great actor overnight, because in any case, her tone didn't sound anything close to what he thought would be when someone was hiding something, especially emotions. He'd been through many _real-life experiences_ to know that.

"...Alright." He clasped his hand together to form a bridge, deciding to move on from the conversation. He had no evidence to rebuke Aoko, and truthfully, he did hope she had found the closure she needed.

"Thank you for your concern, Inspector Kudo." She smiled.

Shinichi afforded a smile back, but it faded not long after. He still wasn't done with what he had to say. "Actually, there's something I've been wanting to ask you for a while; Since the black organisation had been taken down, and now you knew Kaitou Kid is alive, are you considering leaving the Special Task Force?"

Aoko blinked. "Am I fired?"

He let out a soft laugh. "No, no. I'm asking if you're still keen to stay."

"Of course I am." She said in a heartbeat.

Shinichi watched her expectantly. "I thought there wasn't any reason left for you to."

"Everything I did was my choice. And I'm going to stay." Her words flowed out with practiced conviction, and he wondered if she had been thinking about it for a while. Or maybe somebody even asked her recently.

He decided to leave all those thoughts to the back of his head.

"Is there anything else, Inspector Kudo?" Aoko asked after a short silence fell. "The Watanabe family are expecting my phone call to arrange a witness testimonial on the recent case."

"Ok. I shall not keep you back." Shinichi nodded and gestured her to the door. "But anyway Aoko... good to see you well." He said after a millisecond pause.

"Thank you." Aoko stood up from her chair and bowed, turning to leave. Just as she was about to step out, she whirled around, her long hair swiping from her back to over her shoulders. "Oh, Inspector Kudo?"

"Hm?" He was halfway shuffling his papers and he stopped, looking at her with curiosity.

"Remember the song I told you about? I'm in Love with a Girl by Big Star."

Shinichi tilted his head. While considering the oddity of her random question, he was, at the same time, trying to recollect the familiar memory, and his eyes snapped up in alarm when he did.

"Yes, I do. Why?"

"You mentioned that you caught an acquaintance of yours humming to that song when you met him."

He blinked.

"Was he Kaitou Kid?" She continued.

 _How did she—?_ "Yes… it was." He admitted.

"I see." She beamed, her smile so radiant and big that his cheeks ached for hers. With that, she left the room, leaving Shinichi to wonder what kind of thoughts and guesses she had made to even come up with that conclusion.

.o.

As usual, business became slow and the cafe was mostly empty since its location was inconvenient for anyone from the business district to come over for lunch. Taking advantage of that, most of Keiko's colleagues were loitering in the kitchen, talking to the chefs. There were just two customers sitting at a corner of the cafe, enjoying each other company rather than the cake and coffee they ordered, and they didn't seem to mind the lack of staff that weren't waiting on them.

Instead of joining the gossips and conversations, Keiko volunteered to take charge of minding the cashier counter, in case there were new customers or that the couple finally decided to leave and continue their romantic display somewhere else. And for the past fifteen minutes or so, she had been standing in her spot, pretending to be ready to do her job when in actual fact she was scrolling through her photo album and deciding what pictures to delete because of the minimal memory space on her phone.

But so far, she only succeeded in deleting a few food and repeated spammed photos, and it didn't exactly make a difference in her memory space at all. She just couldn't choose when most of her photos contained fond memories of her friends, especially the ones in her good old high school and college days. Most of them had Aoko in it, and the brilliance in her smile was something Keiko hadn't seen in a long time, which made it harder for her to delete them at all.

 _However_ … that _brilliance_ did appear recently, though.

Aoko had became a little bit more cheerful since two weeks ago. Maybe _a little bit_ seemed like an understatement. Seeing Aoko's strained smiles and efforts to show that she was happy for the past three years had become a common norm, that was why her genuine cheerfulness and excitement suddenly made the difference too obvious to ignore.

Keiko hadn't had the chance to question about Aoko's _change_ yet. She wasn't sure if it was a temporary thing or that Aoko had finally let go of her guilt towards Kaitou Kid and found something worthy to be happy about in her life. She wasn't even sure if Aoko noticed the change in herself, and she was afraid if she brought it up, Aoko would return back to how she usually was.

The memory of that night when Aoko burst out crying in her arms, still tormented about Kaitou Kid's death remained clear in her mind. It wasn't something she would like to go through ever again.

As her thoughts drifted to the thief in white, Keiko scrolled to her album folders and found one of them labelled "Kaitou Kid!" with a heart shaped emoji at the end (She tried not to cringe at her past self and focused on her objectives instead). It had been last updated exactly the time of his _retirement,_ and deleting it would recover more memory space than all the photos she had struggled to delete just now.

She tapped on the options.

 _Are you sure you want to delete the folder? The photos in the folder will be deleted permanently._

Her thumb hovered over the button for a second before she clicked away.

The folder remained as it was.

Keiko let out a resolute breath and kept her phone in her back pocket.

If Kaitou Kid had truly retired like what the media claimed, maybe deleting the folder would have been easier. But knowing that he was responsible in saving Aoko from that terrible fate had changed her perspective about the thief, which also made it even harder for Keiko to forget him even though she hypocritically wanted Aoko to forget and let go of the guilt too.

All of the sudden, an unexpected chime came from the bell by the door and Keiko jumped in minor shock. She hastily pushed all the distracted thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on preparing her cheerful greeting.

"Welcome to—"

Her words stopped the same as how the customer halted in his movement, the glass door slowly closing behind him as time stood still...

When things finally became clear, Keiko gaped, and slowly lifted a hand to point at the man. "A-Aren't you the ice-rink guy?"

The said ice-rink guy blinked and realisation dawned upon him. He glanced around the cafe before looking back at Keiko again. "What a coincidence." He said, though lacking the surprise she thought he should have sounded.

"Do you live around here?" She couldn't help but asked. This place wasn't far from the ice-rink, and seeing how they met in the same area wouldn't make it odd to guess that.

There was a pause before he answered. "Yeah."

"It's strange how I've never seen you around before."

He shrugged. "I don't exactly eat or go out much, but well, my feet decided to bring me here for a change."

Seeing his laid-back and casual attitude, he didn't look like the kind of person that believed in superstitions, which was why Keiko found it weird to hear him speak in a manner like some fate had brought his feet here and that it was the ultimate answer to their coincidence.

"I wish more customers' legs are like yours." Keiko managed a smile when she wasn't sure what else to comment. "Anyway, sorry to keep you waiting. Table for?"

"One."

Having more spaces to choose, she led him to one of the booths with the best window-view of the streets. After he settled in his seat, Keiko handed him a menu. He flipped through the pages quite quickly and stopped when reached the dessert section.

Keiko felt she had interrogated him enough since he entered the cafe, so perhaps asking him why he was having dessert during lunch time would be over-stepping the boundary. Instead, she gave a suggestion. "Our chocolate parfait is the most popular dessert." She said, making sure her tone didn't sound like she was rushing him. It just seemed the ice-rink guy had some trouble with finding what he was looking for too.

"Then I'll have that," he grinned before looking down at the menu again, his eyes scanning across the colourful pictures. If her type wasn't men with green eyes and straight, black hair, his charming and carefree demeanour might have made Keiko fall for him. _And_ _anyways_ , if all things worked out, she thought Aoko would be better paired with him, given how she was captivated by him during their first _magical_ meeting, even if she refused to admit it.

Oh boy, she couldn't wait to text Aoko later.

"Anyway, do you allow requests?"

Keiko's mind quickly drifted back to reality. She steadied the notepad in her hands. "Ah, yes. Sure."

"I want extra caramelised sauce and peanuts, and an additional serving of vanilla ice cream. Oh, and I don't want the cherry on top too."

 _Wait a minute—!_

"All of that and… you _don't want_ the cherry on top?"

She might have sounded like she wanted to bite his head off because he squirmed in his seat, visibly uncomfortable. He stared at the menu for a while before looking back at her. "Is the cherry an icon of your cafe or something?"

"No."

"Well… I can still have the cherry on top if it is necess—"

"You said you don't want the cherry on top and you will not be getting the cherry on top."

His puzzled look turned to amusement. "Alright."

Keiko took in a deep breath and mustered a perfect smile to show it was definitely _alright_ when nothing really was. This special request of his was actually—!

She had been so distracted by the order to not realise the bell had chimed again, signalling another new customer coming in. It was until when one of her colleagues, who just came out from the kitchen, suddenly greeted with a merry voice.

"Oh Aoko-chan! Nice to see you."

"Hello Haruka-chan." Aoko smiled, giving a wave as she walked to the middle of the cafe. She stopped short once Keiko turned and their eyes met.

"Aoko!" Keiko waved, gesturing her to come over.

"Hey." Aoko's grin turned bigger, but it falter to a gape when she noticed who Keiko was serving.

"You remember him, don't you? The ice-rink guy." Keiko jabbed a thumb over her shoulder (If Keiko was more perceptive enough, she would have noticed the odd silence from the ice-rink guy was a way of regaining his composure of seeing Aoko at the cafe too).

Aoko slowly walked towards them, her blue eyes trailing slowly from Keiko to the ice-rink guy. "I do remember him." She said, her voice soft and gentle as she reached to Keiko's side.

"What a coincidence isn't it?" Keiko raised her eyebrows teasingly, but her smile faltered once she noted the lack of reaction coming from Aoko. If it was the usual, Aoko would have been flustered and asking her to stop. But instead, she was looking at him with a faint smile that Keiko couldn't understand. And what made things ever weirder was how he was looking back at Aoko the same way too, and Keiko felt as though she'd intruded on a private moment.

Keiko cleared her throat, effecting snapping their gaze away from each other and onto her. "You don't usually eat here for lunch; Isn't this area quite far from your office?" Keiko asked Aoko as she glanced at the empty entrance door.

Aoko shrugged. "I just had the urge to come here, that's all."

 _Urge?_ "Then... Are you alone?"

"Yeah—"

"You can join me." The ice-rink guy gestured over at the empty seat across him.

Keiko blinked.

Aoko paused, seeming to contemplate his offer. "Would it be inconvenient?"

 _What?!_ Keiko bulging eyes narrowed into slits. _No hesitation? No uneasiness? No straight-out rejection? That's… a first._

"I'm not expecting anyone." He explained.

"I see," Aoko made a movement, something between a shrug and a nod. "I don't mind joining you, if that's the case."

 _An agreement within a second?!_ Keiko gaped in horror. _That's another first._

Aoko turned to Keiko and was about to say something when she stopped and pursed her lips. "What's wrong? You don't look okay." Aoko asked.

 _Lots of wrong but I don't mind it being right._ Keiko shook her head. "I'm fine. So, uh, what do you want to eat?"

She looked sceptical, but said nothing more. _"_ I'll have my usual."

"Usual?" Keiko blinked, again. "You want _ice cream_ for lunch?"

"Yeah." Aoko answered like it was the most logical thing in the world. "Why not?"

The awkward silence lasted for five seconds before Aoko couldn't handle the tension any longer and blushed, her eyes began fluttering in a manner that Keiko knew would make most men stare (And _most men_ included the one currently sitting in his booth).

Being oblivious by her own charms, of course, Aoko leaned towards Keiko, her eyebrows raised curiously. "Is there a reason why I shouldn't have ice cream for lunch?" She whispered.

"Just… never mind." In truth, Keiko had no idea how to describe this odd situation, and she decided to continue her job's duties since her next sentence would make things self-explanatory anyway. "So, let me repeat both of your orders: Two chocolate parfait with extra caramelised sauce and peanuts, and an additional serving of vanilla ice cream." She looked up from her notepad and pushed her glasses up her nose as she cleared her throat. "And without the cherries on top too."

As though they were in some synchronisation competition, both of them turned to each other at the perfect second, looking as if they were sharing some secret that Keiko definitely wasn't a part of to know.

It was Keiko's turn to be unable to handle the tension any longer as she cleared her throat again. "Is that all?" She asked.

Aoko looked too awkward to say anything so she just shook her head. At least the ice-rink guy seemed to find back the composure to muster a reply. "That's all." He closed the menu and handed it back to Keiko.

"Alright then. Your food—desserts—will be coming shortly."

From the corner of Keiko's eyes after she left, she watched Aoko slipping into the booth, their awkward smile turned into growing grins as they fell into a comfortable conversation that Keiko couldn't hear from where she was.

"New orders." Keiko said, sliding the torn note from her notepad through the small kitchen window as her eyes continued fixating at the pair.

"Oh?" One of the kitchen staff looked through the window and waved the paper in his hand. "Aoko-chan is here?"

"Yeah."

"And she's having two servings?"

"She's with a…" Keiko paused, "a friend."

 _Or is it?_

The kitchen staff left to prepare the food after making a comment or two, which Keiko was too busy and immersed in her own thoughts to hear. She tapped her fingers on the counter and bit her lips until it turned sore. Friends or not, it was undeniably that at one point after the ice-rink encounter, they must have met and something positive happened, unlike the incident where he acted as though he had constipation and a stick stuck up in his ass the same time.

 _Ughh._ Keiko almost wanted to pull out her pigtails. Why didn't Aoko tell her anything beforehand? The more she pondered about it, the more tempted she was to get Aoko out of the cafe and ask all the questions that were suffocating her right now.

 _Wait… Could he be the one that caused the change in Aoko?!_

Keiko hastily stretched her neck, giving a quick glimpse at the booth again. Her suspicion grew even bigger as she watched the pair talking and smiling, like it was the first time they were ever happy in their life, and that they had waited forever for this moment…

(There seemed to be some truth in it. And for Aoko's sake, Keiko decided her questions could definitely wait till later)

.o.

 _There's someone I want you to meet._

Pushing the phone into the back of his pocket again, Jii smiled and picked a wine glass to wipe for later uses. He had already looked at the message for the tenth time since he received it this morning from Kaito.

When Kaito first told Jii of his plan to start performing magic shows more than a month ago, he immediately jumped to offer help in getting some networks to make it easier for Kaito to strive it out on stage, but Kaito insisted he wanted to start afresh, and everything on his own too, and it happened just that. Those small magic shows he performed in parks and streets had garnered attention on social medias and even among Jii's connections that he originally wanted to introduce, and that was it. He was flying with his own wings. He did what he believe he could. He wasn't in his father's shadows anymore.

Jii wondered if the person Kaito wanted him to meet was someone from the magic industry. Maybe it was someone who wanted to sign a contract with Kaito so he could perform a show on stage? Or a famous inventor that wanted collaborations? Or a producer who wanted to invite Kaito to a Talent show? There were lots of maybes and what-ifs, and Jii was so happily distracted with these thoughts that he didn't hear the sound of footsteps entering his bar.

"Yo, Jii-chan!"

Kaito never failed to surprise Jii every time, just like that day when he came over with homemade tamagoyaki. But there were limits to it, and at this moment, Kaito had broken that limit.

His rare and chirpy tone was already enough to make Jii glanced up with wide eyes, but seeing it was _a woman_ walking beside Kaito, and that _the identity_ of the woman was one he never expected in his whole life, he was so in shock he almost dropped the wine glass he was in the midst of wiping.

 _Isn't she…?_

They both walked towards the bar counter side-by-side, which made it easier for Jii to realise their steps were in sync.

"Hello." Jii said carefully, and glanced between Kaito and the lady. He wasn't that senile to not remember her recent visit to his bar, and she certainly remember it as much as he did, but all she gave was a knowing look and pursed her lips for the remaining seconds, not once speaking or mentioning about how she'd came here before. And for some weird reason, it made Jii feel oblige to not mention it too. Well, maybe not now—

"She's the person I want to introduce to you," Kaito gestured. "Nakamori Aoko."

Jii blinked, the name ringing a loud bell in his head as those feelings of familiarity floated to the surface again, nibbling at the back of his thoughts.

And then it clicked. Everything clicked.

All the senses of familiarity weren't random or meaningless. They _did_ meet before, long _long_ ago when Kaito was still actively searching for Pandora as Kaitou Kid. Nakamori Aoko. Daughter of the Inspector in-charge of the currently disbanded Kaitou Kid Task Force. The number one anti-Kid fan. One of the hostages of the terrible kidnapping case. And the ultimate person who finalised Kaito's decision to never wear the Kaitou Kid's suit again.

 _That_ Nakamori Aoko.

He flashed a glance to Kaito, at the same time sending him silent signals of ' _what is going on?'_ before Aoko spoke, snapping Jii's attention back onto her.

"Nice to meet you." Aoko smiled sheepishly and bowed in greeting.

"Nice to meet you too." Jii settled the wine glass on the table and bowed back courteously.

No wonder Jii found her so familiar after she left the bar that day. Although she had grown more feminine-looking, there were still traces of her old features, like the shape of her nose and the style of her hair, and the more Jii looked at her, the more he couldn't help but feel nostalgic about the past.

Then what about Kaito? He should know better than to think she was some random woman who happened to be named _Nakamori Aoko_ on the street. How many _Nakamori Aoko_ with the same blue eyes and brown hair were there in the world for such coincidence? And if he knew, what was he thinking? Getting close to her with his real identity…

He wanted to ask Kaito right now, but the only thing that was holding Jii back was Aoko's presence. Every word he said could cause a slip up, and he wasn't sure if she knew the truth about Kaitou Kid's true fate, much less his true identity—

"Don't look so worried, Jii-chan." Kaito shook his head, his eyes crinkled almost mockingly. "You'll understand soon."

Had he been frowning? Jii cleared his throat. "Understand what, Kaito-botchama?"

"There's a really long story I want to tell you, but let us get comfortable first." Kaito hopped onto a high chair and patted the empty spot next to him for Aoko. "Take a seat. And before you consider your drinks, you should try Jii-chan's Tequila Sunrise. It's nice."

Aoko, who was staring at the pools table at the other side of the bar, turned back and gave Kaito a smirk. "I know, and it is." She answered as she propped herself onto the high chair.

Kaito blinked, obviously not expecting that, and Jii couldn't help but chortled at his curious frown.

He remembered those late nights when Kaito dropped by his bar to have a drink. The difference between how he looked now and then was almost like water and oil. He didn't look like a lost puppy that Jii wanted to rescue from the pet shelter anymore. He looked more like his old self, the happy grandson that Jii wished he had.

"So, two Tequila Sunrise?" Jii prompted for the drink orders before Kaito could ask what was happening.

"I'll like to try something new." Aoko settled an arm over the counter, her shoulders relaxed. "Do you have any recommendation?"

"How about Ginger Ale?"

"Ginger Ale?" Kaito echoed in disdain.

Ignoring his scrunched-up face and judging, squinty eyes, Aoko grinned.

"I'll love to have that."

.o.

For once in the longest time, the office was empty and quiet. Having recently solved a big scandal case, most of the work load was gone, and Hakuba's subordinates could finally find the time to go out for a proper lunch, rather than eating stale bread with coffee while waiting for phones to ring and looking through files every day.

Hakuba, on the other hand, was the only one left in the office. Someone had to stay behind to take the emergency calls, and he took the role, just so to give his subordinates that well-deserved break (although most of them were hesitant about it, Hakuba meant his words). Akako had prepared some scrumptious bento lunch for him too anyway, so all was good—

"Good afternoon, Inspector Hakuba."

The unexpected voice almost caused Hakuba to miss his aim when he threw his crushed napkin into the waste paper basket (He had just came out from the pantry area after washing the utensils he used for his lunch)

"Kenzou?" Hakuba blinked when he realised who the voice belonged to. His surprise instantly changed to puzzlement. "Why are you here?"

"Thought I could come back and settle some last minute edits in my report before submission." Kenzou said, his eyes scrutinising the empty office as he walked towards Hakuba. "Has everyone gone for lunch?"

Hakuba narrowed his eyes.

Although he recognized the sharp face and neat attire, something still seemed off. The Kenzou he knew was serious and composed, which completely contrasted how he strode across the room with arms swinging around. Besides, the way his gaze lingered over the office was the most suspicious thing of all; The casual glances were more of an attempt to hide his actual intention of making observations around the office...

Just like how Kaitou Kid would do in his disguised form when he held a heist in an unfamiliar location.

"I'm conflicted." Hakuba muttered

Kenzou raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Between the fact that I'm impressed you knew the real _Kenzou_ isn't around and disappointed that you got his impressions all wrong."

The smile on _Kenzou's_ face turned into a smirk. "Can't have you guessing for too long." His solemn voice was replaced with the snarky, honeyed-pitched tone of Kuroba Kaito. "My throat isn't feeling well these days."

Hakuba regarded Kaito warily. "Why are you here?"

Kaito put out a hand. "I heard you'd solved your case. And I want my file back."

"You could have told me and I'll just bring it to your house."

"That's the thing. I don't want you to go my house."

Hakuba scoffed at the typicality of his answer. Having no other excuses (for his tardiness since he did promise Kaito he would return his file after he finished using it), he retreated to his private room to take the file from his desk drawers.

"Here." He passed it back to him after returning to his side.

Kaito flipped through the file and nodded, feeling appeased after checking all the contents were there as it should be. "Okay, I shall—"

"Inspector Hakuba! And... Kenzou-kun?"

Hakuba swore Kaito's shoulders flinched even more than his own. They both turned as Daisuke, his ever-enthusiastic subordinate, skipped across the room and towards them. (Hakuba wished he could tell how lucky Daisuke was to make it to the short-list of people that could surprise Kaito, even if it was done unintentionally).

"Daisuke." Hakuba greeted back, for Kaito's sake if he needed the information.

"Didn't you call in sick?" Daisuke asked. "Why are you here?"

 _Kenzou_ mustered a smile and waved the file in his hand. "Came to pick this up. I'm leaving soon."

"I can never beat you for the amount of hard work you put in to the job every time." Daisuke slapped a hand on _Kenzou's_ back, the latter looking more disgruntled as every second passed.

Hakuba bit his lips, trying to hide the smile that was itching to appear. Besides Akako and his favourite tea, the third thing he loved was to see Kaito uncomfortable. But after all these years, he'd understood there were many things that went beyond the world of logic, and karma was one of it. Hakuba cleared his throat, trying to get Daisuke's attention away from _Kenzou_.

"Where are the others?" He glanced at the empty entrance in front of their department. "I thought you had lunch with them?

"Oh," Daisuke broke into a _big_ smile. "I had lunch with Aoko-chan."

 _Kenzou_ snapped his neck and cast a disapproval look over to Daisuke, which made Hakuba narrow his eyes in observation. Daisuke, on the other hand, continued talking about how the food in the cafeteria had improved, and Hakuba believed it must be _really_ that good for him to talk so passionately about the food and not noticing how _Kenzou's_ gaze was basically piercing holes into his temples.

Luckily, the sudden shrill of the phone ring managed to save Hakuba the effort to change the course of the conversation. Daisuke excused himself with a nod and dashed to the phone before picking it up, his chirpy tone turned serious in an instant.

Hakuba had no problem with reminding Kaito when to leave because he always did before there was a need to mention it. And now was exactly the best moment for Kaito to do his disappearing act, but for the first time that ever happened in history, he remained rooted to the ground and showed no signs of leaving.

Nothing had made Hakuba so confused in his life.

"Why are you still here—"

"Isn't office romance prohibited in your line of work?"

Hakuba stopped short and blinked. "Pardon?"

"Your subordinate is hanging out with another female subordinate." Kaito's line of focus was still on Daisuke's back as the latter talked into the phone, and Hakuba almost thought he could see the gears in Kaito's head moving. He'd seen that ominous stare before, and it often happened right before pranks broke out…

 _Ah._

"It's just lunch. And technically, Nakamori-san is not from my department, as you should already know—"

"Is that supposed to make a difference?" Kaito sneered. "And I'm talking in general, not just about the two of them."

Hakuba bet three of Akako's magic pots that Kaito _was_ talking about the two of them and no one else.

"You're being oddly sensitive." Hakuba smiled knowingly. "Is it because it involves Nakamori-san?"

Kaito returned a gentle smile, though his eyes were steeled in a manner of dying patience. "No." He said, voice eerily calm.

Unlike everyone else Hakuba knew, Kaito handled his emotions better when he wasn't in his territory. His mask was already up in the first place, making it much harder to break it down. That was why Hakuba often liked to do surprise visits to Kaito's house. His guard was lowered, and pushing discomfort in his comfort zone made him snap and talk easier.

To think that Kaito already talked so much _here_ , Hakuba wondered what to expect if he confronted him at his house instead.

"Actually, it's been quite a while since we had a good chat." Hakuba snatched the file from Kaito's hand, catching him off guard. "I guess I'll have to make a detour and pay you a visit later, _and_ return your file too."

Kaito scowled. "I don't want—"

"Sir, there's an emergency." Daisuke interrupted as he put the receiver down. "One of the witnesses was said to be missing from his home."

" _What?_ " Hakuba growled, his instinct and professionalism of an inspector back on. "Inform another member to get back to the office as backup. We'll head to the scene." He dashed past Kaito and back to his private office, tossing the file onto his table and grabbed his phone and car keys before stomping back to the main office.

"I've called Satoshi." Daisuke informed as he buckled the holster around his belt. He then glanced at Kenzou, who was still standing there composedly, as though enjoying the show. "Is Kenzou coming or is he staying as backup?"

"Neither." Hakuba narrowed his eyes. "He's going home."

Daisuke looked between them curiously, but said nothing. Without another word, they sprinted out, leaving _Kenzou_ alone in the office.

All was fine in the end, thankfully. No sooner after a brief search around his neighbourhood, the witness was found drunk and wasted in a secluded alley. Hakuba tried to show concern for his recent break-up loss, but it would be another case if his disappearance act happened on the day of the big case's trial. And that being said, he ordered the witness-protection squad to tighten their security before both Daisuke and him returned to the headquarters.

Lunch break was long over by then, but when they reached the office, everyone seemed to be as happy as the moment lunch break just started.

And _Kenzou_ , of course, was nowhere to be found.

"Inspector Hakuba." A few of them greeted, but most of the energy and attention seemed to be on Daisuke.

"You could have told us instead of an email, Daiani." Someone at the back yelled. The snickers grew louder, but Hakuba and Daisuke didn't get the meaning behind the supposed joke.

Daisuke frowned as he returned to his seat. "Who's Daiani? And why are you all looking at me like that?"

Hakuba would have stayed to hear the answer too, out of curiosity, but his strides continued all the way until he reached his private room. He closed the door behind him and let out a breath once he saw his table. The file, which Kaito came for, was still there. At least he meant what he said about stopping his thievery.

But Hakuba still had a bad feeling about _something_.

He walked to his desk and slumped onto his chair. He moved his mouse, lighting up his computer screen as he accessed his inbox (Someone did mention something about an email after all). His inbox was spammed with follow-ups, reports and newsletter and there wasn't anything out of the norm, _until_ he noted an email that was marked as important, with the subject line stating: _An announcement to make._

And it was from Daisuke.

As Hakuba clicked on the email, a loud roar echoed from outside.

"WHO THE HELL SENT IT?!"

The email finished loading.

 _Dear everyone. I will be going through a sex reassignment surgery at the end of this week. And from today onwards, I would like to be called Daiani. Thank you. Your support would mean a lot to me. xoxo Daiani_

Hakuba smirked, clicking on the recipients that the email was sent to. It definitely wasn't a coincidence when the first one on the list was none other than Nakamori Aoko.

.o.

It had been a long time since Ginzo was ever this early for dinner.

Work had become less hectic than before ever since his daughter and team had wiped out those big criminal organization, which instigated most of the frauds they once handled. The BO's end had brought a good change to the world, and of course, the joy of lesser crimes and work too (Except for him, maybe. It was... better when Kaitou Kid was still around).

All his subordinate sang nothing but praises for Aoko, saying how they'd seen her potential ever since she came to help out at Kid's heists occasionally. Proud was one of the things he felt, definitely. Worry was another, and guilt was the thing that tied it all together in a ribbon...

Ginzo shook his head. Even though he'd reached her doorsteps, his early arrival would end up late anyway if he continued to think about things that didn't matter at the moment. Resolving his nerves, he straightened his tie once again and rang the doorbell.

Usually by the count of three, Aoko would have opened the door and welcomed him in. But the door remained closed even after Ginzo counted to ten, and just when he was about to ring the bell again, the door finally flung open, revealing Aoko beaming in her yellow apron.

"You're here!" She chimed, moving aside for Ginzo to enter.

"Has Keiko reached?" He stepped in, trying to strain his neck to see where his daughter's best friend was.

Aoko blinked. "She's not coming tonight."

Ginzo blinked in return. And he was originally thinking Keiko was the reason why Aoko was taking so long to answer the door. "I thought you said a friend is coming over?"

"It's not Keiko."

"Then who?" He glanced down, noticing a pair of shoes lying near the door.

It didn't look like female shoes.

"You'll know once you come in!" Aoko closed the door and pushed him away from the entrance. As her father, of course he loved seeing his daughter happy, but for some reason he found her enthusiasm a little discomforting.

As they entered the living room, a figure—a man—suddenly jumped up from his seat, his back straight and stiff as he afforded a smile. Ginzo wasn't a businessman; the more confident a person was, the less he would trust. So seeing the little nervous tension on the man's shoulders made him less annoying than what Ginzo felt towards many men he'd met. But there was something else about him that Ginzo couldn't quite put his feeling to words. Familiar? Nostalgic? These weren't exactly good signs either, _if_ the reason he felt this way was because this man was one of those criminals he'd sent to jail before. That would explain the nervousness too.

"His name is Kuroba Kaito, the friend I want to introduce you too!" Aoko gestured at Kaito. Ginzo frowned. It was that chime in her tone again. Very suspicious.

The last time Aoko introduced a man to Ginzo as a friend was… wait, was there ever once? He only knew her old high school and college friends, and from what he remembered, they were all female, and they were all not properly introduced to Ginzo like this. He just found them in his house one particular day and Aoko would casually introduce them and mention about the school project they came over to work on, that was all…

Ginzo darted Kaito a glance before looking at Aoko. "Your boyfriend?"

"No!" Aoko yelped and eyed a nervous look over the surprisingly impassive-looking man. "He's just a friend, really."

 _'Really'_ wasn't enough to convince Ginzo. Maybe this was the _get-to-know-each-other_ phase he heard his subordinates talked about. They had shared many stories at work, about how their daughters brought their boyfriends back home without notice, and how boys these days were so stuck up and impolite even though they were supposed to earn brownie points during those family dinners. It was funny to listen, but never did Ginzo realise he would experience that ever, or at least not so soon.

He never had the privilege to add anything to those head-aching stories, not like he wanted anyway. Like how he met his wife, he thought love would come if it was destined to, and he never once pressure Aoko to find a partner (Though maybe his wife would, if she was still here).

But that didn't meant he wasn't prepared for this day to come.

He narrowed his eyes, and if Kuroba Kaito noticed it, he sure as hell didn't show it. Instead, he suavely but politely took out a hand. "Nice to meet you, sir." He spoke, his voice calm and cool.

Ginzo said nothing and only returned the handshake.

"Dinner is going to be ready in a while." Aoko jogged toward the kitchen before turning back hastily. "Don't keep standing there! Take a seat." She gestured the two men to the sofa.

They both sat in sync and a short silence fell. From his past profiling experiences, Ginzo easily guessed his age was perhaps the same as Aoko, or a little older. There was something that made Ginzo feel comfortable with this man, but it explained nothing about why he felt familiar—

"I heard from Aoko that you've been working in the Police Department for over thirty years." Kaito said, breaking the silence and Ginzo's focus of analyzation.

"Yes. Thirty four to be exact."

"Isn't the working hours exhausting?"

"If you love your job, you wouldn't count the number of hours as long or exhausting." Ginzo muttered and glanced towards the kitchen, where he could see Aoko humming from one side of the kitchen to another. "But time isn't what I've sacrificed the most."

Kaito nodded thoughtfully. "I see."

He turned back to the living room. "So what do you do?"

"I'm a freelance magician."

Ginzo widened his eyes. It was staple in his previous management to hear the word _magician_ every day, and it felt so weird to hear it again after all these years. He cleared his throat, hoping to dispel those possible irrelevant thoughts from floating to his mind. "Interesting field." He remarked.

"Many said so too."

Besides his past commitments, what were the chances that a magician and a police detective would cross path in broad day lights? "How did you and my daughter first meet?"

"It's quite complicated." Kaito shifted in his seat and said no more.

"I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be as bad as those stupid and barbaric sob-stories I've heard from criminals." Ginzo scoffed. "Nothing is going to faze me easily."

Kaito let out a short laugh and shifted in his seat again. "Well… We met at a museum." He paused and gave a short, recollecting look. "I was performing for a show when your daughter came to watch as an audience, and she hated it. She was quite feisty for that."

Ginzo wondered if Aoko had some prejudice against magicians because of Kaitou Kid, but she hadn't complained about the thief for a long time since his death. He wondered if he should tell Kaito about Aoko and everything that happened before.

Perhaps not now.

"Did she give any reason for disliking it?" Ginzo asked curiously.

"It was too flashy."

He nodded. "I trust my daughter's taste—"

Kaito's smirk turned into an honest smile. "Of course."

"—But would you still care to impress me?"

Before Kaito could reply, Aoko chimed a "Dinner's ready!" from the kitchen, and he broke into a huge grin (Ginzo wasn't sure if he was smiling to him or the fact that dinner was ready).

"How about afterwards?" Kaito suggested.

This boy—man—might not be that bad after all.

.o.

As everyone's claps and cheers died down, Aoko realised she was the only left clapping like a hyperactive seal.

No matter how many times Aoko seen Kaito's magic, be it on stage or simple ones in parks like this, she was always impressed beyond words. It made her feel like a happy child again, with curled up toes and clasped hands and feeling excited to know what was going to happen next. And it was kind of the same whenever she was with him too.

Finding no more reasons to stay, the crowd dispersed quickly after Kaito concluded the show,. Only a few children lingered around Kaito's portable table, still feeling awed in the aftermath, and the sight of Kaito whipping out lollipops for each of them made her lips tug uncontrollably.

Despite how the entire Japan population was once captivated by the Kaitou Kid, no one seemed to be able to recognise him without his ridiculous top hat and monocle, even if the skills and tricks were mastered and executed with equal passion. And it was kind of stupid and unfair, Aoko thought, when the _original_ was undeniably more handsome than his _alter ego_ form. Especially his eyes, which weren't hindered by any shadows; Even though she had explored more than half of his life in her dreams, it seemed like he had hidden more stories behind those eyes that she had yet to see.

Ok. She should stop looking. Or at least not afar and acting like a stalker. After a few seconds of breathing exercise to calm her flushing cheeks, Aoko walked over to the Kaito, who was now looking down and packing his things (The children had left after their parents tugged them away and to their dinners).

"Hey."

Unknowingly, her heart fluttered when she noticed how Kaito broke into a grin even before looking up. And when he did, his smile grew wider.

"Aoko." He breathed out her name, like he couldn't believe she was standing right in front of him. She was conflicted between feeling flattered and embarrassed by his reaction, so she responded with a compliment instead:

"Your performance is great, as usual."

"Thanks." His eyes were warm and sincere. "Anyway, since when did you arrive?"

"At the moment when you did the rabbit trick."

Kaito raised his eyebrows. "That's basically the start of the show. I didn't know you'd knocked off so early."

Aoko shrugged. She didn't have an answer for that; her work hours were dependent on her and the team's capabilities, and even _that_ fluctuated on a day-to-day basis too. She turned the topic back to him. "I should be asking why you'd shortened your performance. You usually do seven tricks. This time you only did five."

He cast her a quick glance before looking away. "I wanted to end things early so I could drop by your work. I guess you beat me to it."

She chuckled. "You can just call the audiences back. I'm pretty sure they would love an encore."

"Nah, there are more chances for that next time." He waved a hand, while the other juggled with three metal balls before he dropped them into his bag of props. "It's rare that your shift ends so early. We should drop by Keiko's cafe and have ice cream instead."

Aoko walked around the portable table and stood next to him, eyes running across the desk to see what packing she could help with. She started with his cards, and shuffled them together to form a neat deck. "I'm actually craving for Jii-chan's Ginger Ale though." She pondered out loud.

Kaito sneered. "Are you sure?"

She turned to him accusingly. "What's with the question?"

"In case you have the thought of going there to play pool."

 _Aha. He got me._ "The pool table _is_ there for us to play anyway."

"Not when your cue stick whacked my head more times than the pool balls."

"It was all an accident!" She pursed her lips stubbornly. "And I'm still learning."

"What a convenient excuse."

"You know what? _Maybe_ whacking your head with the cue stick might just be my intention after all."

Kaito smirked (He always did whenever he managed to ruffle her emotions). "Sounds like a sport that fits you well."

Aoko scoffed before forcing herself back to neutrality. "So… are we going to Jii-chan's bar?"

"To whack my head with the cue stick?"

She wrinkled her nose. " _That_ , and Ginger Ale."

"Alright." He said (much to Aoko's surprise), and returned to his props again.

Aoko gave a triumphant grin, which she knew he saw from the corner of his eyes and causing his lips to curl up to a faint smile. Fuelled with energy, she focused on her packing task again, and they slowly fell into a comfortable silence. Once in a while, their hands would brush against each other when they reached for a common item, and she thought she did well in keeping her emotions in check. Kaito was doing exceptionally great at it too, _if_ those moments even mattered to him, of course.

After a good ten minutes passed, they were finally done. Aoko was about to fold the portable table to make it easier to carry it to Kaito's car when he suddenly dropped his props bag and leaned against the table, stopping her and her intentions.

She blinked and stared at Kaito in confusion. "Is there something wrong?"

"Before we go… there's actually something I've been wanting to tell you." Kaito said, his face slightly scrunched up, as though he had been straining his brain's capacity to fit his endless thoughts (And she wondered how long had it been going on). It was rare for Aoko to see him shedding his pokerface so easily, which made it intriguing and equally worrying. At the moment, she was more of the latter.

"What is it?" She asked in concern.

"I had a dream last night."

"A dream?" Aoko echoed, her eyelids fluttering.

He paused, watching her. "Yeah."

The way he sounded didn't seem like it was a bad thing, and she slightly blushed, wondering if perhaps by some chance, he had dreamt about one of her embarrassing memories, like somersaulting into the snow during her last skiing lesson…

"What did you dream about?" She willed herself to say.

"About us." He answered in a heartbeat.

That wasn't something she expected to here. "Something bad?" She managed a squeak. It was the only thing she could think of to say.

A brief surprised look flashed across his face before he laughed, and it made her squirm in her position. She didn't mind his laughter, not at all, but it did make her confuse to why she enjoyed hearing it so much.

Still, she couldn't just let him continue laughing _at her_ without at least knowing the reason. When he showed no signs of stopping, Aoko lightly punched his arm and huffed. He did stop afterwards, though his huge smile was still in place.

"What's so funny." She growled.

"The first thing that came to your mind was _something bad_?"

Aoko glanced away. "Call it a habit but I always expect the worse before thinking about the good. It helps me to handle things easier."

Kaito nodded, seeming to be drinking her words seriously. "Then is this bad?"

She was about to ask what he was referring to when she felt her hand embraced by something warm, and she looked down, to see his hand over hers, and he squeezed it as hard as how her own heart was doing too.

Her tongue was basically tied and she couldn't speak. She shook her head at his question instead.

Kaito nodded to her answer in a solemn manner again, and then that was all he did. The next few seconds ticked by in silence, saved for the faint chortles from the children playing in the background, and they were suddenly engaged in this staring battle that Aoko didn't know when she had participated. And by the looks of it, she was going to lose; The intensity of his stare was so strong, as though he was trying to memorise every inch of her face and scarring it onto his brain.

And then she couldn't hear the children's laughter anymore.

Her pulse was thumping in her ears like a herd of galloping horses, and she couldn't breathe. She thought her heartbeat couldn't have gone even faster, until when he suddenly yet slowly tilted his head towards hers. Her body must have thought she was suffering from cardiac arrest as she jerked, and her hand gave a tight squeeze.

She forgotten their hands were still locked together.

Kaito stopped. Even with his long eyelashes, it didn't hide the transition of how his eyes grew from distant to unreadable. Whatever he was thinking, Aoko was sure it wasn't what she meant, and the thought of that misunderstanding sent her straight to inward panic. But her throat was still tied and her heart was still beating so hard it even pained her to breath; she couldn't find the voice in her to speak.

It all came down to actions.

Just when he was about to move back, she pulled his hand, tugging him forward and plummeted her lips into his.

His lips were warm at first touch, wonderful when the next second passed, and it became like a combination of both at the third second. She lingered there for a heartbeat more before shyly pulling away, and she smiled after she recognised his gaze again; it was 100% of pure shock.

"If you're going to ask if that is bad, then my answer is the same. It's a no." She informed him.

After regaining much of his composure, Kaito licked his lips, and her heart soared, knowing that she had left part of her on _them_. Her face turned hot and she would have looked away in embarrassment, if it wasn't the fact that his sparkling eyes had magnetised her to the point she couldn't even blink.

"So… if those aren't bad, do you still want to hear more about my dream?" Kaito asked. His voice was tainted with curiosity, but his smile, though, told her he was fairly sure of her answer.

It wasn't a dream about their past. It was a dream about their future.

And Aoko couldn't help but to smile back. "Okay."

.end.

* * *

A/n: Hahah gosh it had been a hell of a ride omg and I'm not really sure how to feel about this… but it's finally done (This is by far one of the most taxing story I've written so far and I don't intend to break this record any time soon) Thank you for all of your support and finding the patience to finish this draggy-ass story, and I would appreciate a lot if you'll leave a review :')


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